Hezbollah mouthpiece says ‘resistance’ should resume hostilities with Israel
Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief accuses Israel of violating ceasefire, says West and Lebanese ‘sovereignists’ turning a blind eye: ‘Resistance represents the only redress’
A Hezbollah-aligned newspaper on Saturday urged the resumption of hostilities with Israel, accusing the international community and the Lebanese opposition to Hezbollah of turning a blind eye to alleged Israeli violations of the month-old ceasefire agreement with the terror group.
In an editorial entitled “We must resist the enemy’s violations,” Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim Al-Amine accused Israel of widescale destruction in southern Lebanon, keeping tens of thousands of people from returning to their homes there, and preventing civil defense teams from recovering the bodies of “martyred resistance fighters.”
“Although the people are tired of the war and do not want to be displaced again, the cost of confronting the occupation forces is lower than the cost of relying on what they are doing now,” said Al-Amine, who was seen as a confidant of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“Resistance represents the only redress,” he said, adding that it could be undertaken by Hezbollah or “new groups that find themselves in the position to confront the occupation.”
The Israel Defense Forces has denied violating the agreement, saying its strikes on south Lebanon have targeted Hezbollah’s own violations. On Wednesday, the military said it had killed at least 44 Hezbollah operatives since the ceasefire went into effect.
According to Al-Amine, the first month of the ceasefire agreement has seen Israel destroy border towns on a scale roughly “twice what it had destroyed” over 14 months of war in Lebanon, in a bid to “keep the strip near the border with Palestine free of residents.”
The war was sparked when Hezbollah, unprovoked, began firing at Israel on a near-daily basis on October 8, 2023, a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Israel escalated the campaign against the terror group in September 2024, all but decimating its leadership, in a bid to end the persistent rocket fire that had displaced some 60,000 northerners.
Under the ceasefire signed on November 27, the IDF has until the end of January to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where it will be replaced by the Lebanese military and international peacekeeping force UNIFIL.
The agreement entrusts oversight of the ceasefire to a five-member committee comprising representatives of UNIFIL, the United States, France, Israel and Lebanon. Israel, under the agreement, is entitled to act against immediate threats, but must forward complaints about longer-term threats to the committee.
Al-Amine said the committee was flawed from the outset because its constituents were powerless to prevent Israel from doing “whatever it deems appropriate.”
The editor cited “voices attributed to European parties and officers in the international force” as saying the Israeli attacks legitimized a Hezbollah reprisal. On the other hand, he said, the US “doesn’t care” about Israel’s alleged violations, even though they are “embarrassing” for Washington.
Al-Amine said Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah-backed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has urged the US to take action, to no avail. The editor also said that Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has received no “convincing answers” after warning his Western interlocutors that “what Israel is doing undermines the [ceasefire] agreement and threatens to topple it.”
By contrast, the editor slammed Lebanese politicians who “adopt the enemy’s narrative” by pointing to the presence of Hezbollah fighters south of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the border — contrary to the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Al-Amine said the “sovereignists” — parties opposed to Hezbollah’s state-within-a-state — are “giving cover to the enemy’s madness,” and accused them of “expelling the people of the southern villages.” He added that anti-Hezbollah forces “are supported and funded by the likes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates” — two regional antagonists of Hezbollah’s benefactor Iran.
