Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah's priority right now is defeating Israel militarily, but it is open to any efforts to stop "the aggression", the head of Lebanese group's media office, Mohammad Afif, said on Friday.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

"Tel Aviv is only the start, Israel has only seen so little," Afif said in a televised press conference in the southern suburbs of Beirut with the rubble of destroyed buildings behind him.

"Our absolute priority now is to defeat the enemy and force them to stop the aggression. However, any internal or external political effort to achieve a cessation of aggression is appreciated as long as it is consistent with our comprehensive vision of the battle, its circumstances and its results."

He denied there were weapons stored in Beirut's southern suburbs and said Israel used timed bombs to make it seem so, promising residents of the neighborhood and those displaced from southern Lebanon and Bekaa that they would return soon.



Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen's Houthis 'Most Likely' Intercepted

Armed Houthi supporters pass paintings depicting portraits of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, 27 June 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Armed Houthi supporters pass paintings depicting portraits of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, 27 June 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen's Houthis 'Most Likely' Intercepted

Armed Houthi supporters pass paintings depicting portraits of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, 27 June 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Armed Houthi supporters pass paintings depicting portraits of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, 27 June 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been "most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen's Houthi militias claimed responsibility for the launch.

Israel has threatened Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis - which have been attacking Israel in what they say is solidarity with Gaza - with a naval and air blockade if their attacks on Israel persist.

The Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the group was responsible for Saturday's attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

Since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.

Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.