The deputy leader of Hezbollah has warned Israel it will continue to suffer from attacks unless it agrees to a ceasefire.
Naim Qassem said the group had adopted a new strategy in the past week centred around making Israel feel “pain” – and said it would continue if a deal to pause fighting in Lebanon and Gaza could not be reached.
While he did not provide details, it comes after a Hezbollah drone strike killed four Israeli soldiers at a military base in the town of Binyamina on Sunday.
Qassem, who is also the group’s acting leader following Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah last month, said: “The solution is a ceasefire. We are not speaking from a position of weakness, if the Israelis do not want that, we will continue.”
He said Israel’s attacks across Lebanon gave Hezbollah the right to respond in equal measures, adding: “We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centres and barracks.”
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The pre-recorded televised speech on Tuesday came as funerals took place across the region for those killed in the latest string of attacks.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to mourn the deaths of at least 15 people who were killed in overnight Israeli strikes, including six children and two women, according to officials from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in northern Lebanon. Pic: AP
At least 10 people from the same family were reportedly killed in the bombing of a house in the town of Beni Suhaila. A camera operator for the news agency Associated Press counted the bodies at nearby Nasser Hospital.
Another five were killed in nearby Fakhari.
In Israel, funerals were held for several recently killed soldiers, including 19-year-old Sergeant Yoav Agmon, who died in Hezbollah’s attack on Sunday.
In the Iranian capital of Tehran, a service was also held for Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan – who was killed in the same Beirut airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
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Meanwhile, in Lebanon, work continued on Tuesday to clear the debris following an Israeli strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north of the country on Monday.
UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said at least 22 people had been killed in the bombing, and that many of the victims were women and children.
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Mr Laurence added: “We understand it was a four-storey residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL [International Humanitarian Law], so the laws of war, and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality.”
The UN also said on Tuesday that Israel had ordered more than 25% of Lebanon’s territory to be evacuated, and that more than 400,000 children in the country had been displaced in the past three weeks alone.
The scene following Tuesday’s shooting of a policeman near Tel Aviv. Pic: AP
In Yavne, near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, a gunman killed a policeman and wounded four people after opening fire on cars on a motorway, according to Israeli police on Tuesday.
He was shot dead by a passer-by. There was no confirmation of the identity of the gunman, but Israeli officials described him as a “terrorist”.
