Naim Qassem has accused Washington of seeking to force Beirut to accept a humiliating Israeli occupation<\/p>\n
Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon have injured and killed dozens of civilians, less than 24 hours after West Jerusalem and Beirut agreed to a US-mediated ceasefire proposal.
\nAt least eight people were killed and 15 others\u00a0wounded on Thursday in a series of strikes targeting the towns of Sohmor, Masaken, and Arab Al-Jalil, according to Lebanon\u2019s Health Ministry.
\nMeanwhile, the IDF said an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah killed an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon. Israel also blamed Hezbollah for the death of a UN peacekeeper\u00a0wounded in a mortar shell attack the night before.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Hezbollah must withdraw from Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon \u2013 US<\/p>\n
The US State Department said on Wednesday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a ceasefire contingent on \u201ca complete cessation\u201d of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of its fighters from the South Litani Sector. The statement said the two sides also agreed to advance \u201cpilot zones\u201d where the Lebanese Armed Forces would eventually take exclusive control, \u201cto the exclusion of all non-state actors.\u201d
\nHezbollah was not a party to the Washington talks and has said any arrangement that demands its withdrawal while Israel keeps troops in southern Lebanon would reward occupation rather than end the conflict.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Lebanon on fire: Why Israel derailed US-Iran diplomacy<\/p>\n
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem called the Washington-backed arrangement a \u201cshameless\u201d attempt to force Lebanon into surrender, saying it amounts to a \u201croadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people.\u201d Qassem said Hezbollah would not leave southern Lebanon while Israeli forces remain in the country, and warned that northern Israel would also remain under threat as long as Lebanon is bombed.
\nUS President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and \u201cactually spoke to Hezbollah about it,\u201d dismissing the notion that the group rejects the initiative.
\n\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t reject me, they didn\u2019t reject,\u201d he said, insisting that progress is\u00a0being made between Israel and Lebanon. \u201cIt would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace. Lebanon\u2019s been under attack for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Can\u2019t handle the truce: Trump has redefined \u2018ceasefire\u2019 in the Middle East<\/p>\n
The latest fighting followed weeks of Israeli strikes and ground operations in Lebanon, including the capture of Beaufort Castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif. The medieval fortress, located on a strategic hilltop in southern Lebanon, was previously used by Israel during its two-decade occupation of the region, which ended in 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Naim Qassem has accused Washington of seeking to force Beirut to accept a humiliating Israeli occupation Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon have injured and killed dozens of civilians,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}