New Hezbollah chief threatens Netanyahu, but opens door for ceasefire in first speech

Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem threatened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s life on Wednesday, but also appeared to open the door to a ceasefire with Israel, in his first speech since his appointment was announced on Monday.

“The enemy must know that its bombing of our villages and cities will not make us retreat, and the resistance is strong and was able to deliver a drone to Netanyahu’s room,” Qassem said.

“Netanyahu survived this time, but perhaps his time has not yet come,” Qassem said, going on to suggest that “perhaps an Israeli will kill him, perhaps during one of his speeches.”

“Our diplomatic contacts confirmed to us that Netanyahu is very afraid because we are targeting him,” he added.

He was referring to a drone strike earlier this month on the prime minister’s private residence in Caesarea. The drone hit and cracked the fortified window of Netanyahu’s bedroom and caused some external damage. Netanyahu and his wife Sarah were not home at the time.

The pre-recorded speech, delivered from an undisclosed location, was Qassem’s first address as the terror group’s leader. His appointment was announced on Monday, after Israel killed longtime terror chief Hassan Nasrallah late last month, and then killed Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, a week later.

Despite his bellicose threats, Qassem also said that Hezbollah would agree to a ceasefire with Israel under acceptable terms, but said that a viable deal has yet to be presented.

The remarks echoed language used over the previous year by Nasrallah, who also claimed openness to a ceasefire, but only according to terms that were unacceptable to Israel, which demands the terror group withdraw north of the Litani River.

Qassam also did not explicitly link a Lebanon ceasefire to an end to fighting in Gaza, however — a position previously held by the group — that has stymied efforts to reach a diplomatic deal in Lebanon.

“If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable,” Qassem said.

He added that Hezbollah “will not beg for a ceasefire,” and noted that political efforts to secure a deal have yet to yield results, saying, “No project has been proposed that Israel agrees to and that we can discuss.”

The comments came as Israel considers talks for a truce in southern Lebanon, with Energy Minister Eli Cohen confirming Wednesday that the security cabinet had discussed the terms of a potential deal.

“There are discussions. I think it will still take time,” Cohen told the Kan public broadcaster.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and special envoy Amos Hochstein were also headed to the region for talks Thursday on reaching a ceasefire.

Qassem vowed to follow in Nasrallah’s footsteps, pledging that the blows dealt by Israel in its offensive against the terror group would not deter it, and called on the group’s supporters to remain faithful.

“My work program is a continuation of the work program of our leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said, using his predecessor’s religious honorific, vowing to press ahead with “the war plan that he developed”.

“Those who killed our secretary-general [Nasrallah] wanted to defeat the spirit of resistance within us and shatter the will of jihad, but his blood will continue to boil in our veins and will increase our determination to continue on this path,” Qassem said.

He praised Hezbollah’s missile and drone attacks against northern and central Israel that have sent millions of Israelis into bomb shelters, as well as the deadly attack on a military base in Binyamina in which four soldiers were killed.

Addressing Israel, Qassem threatened: “Get out of our land to reduce your losses. If you stay, you will pay more than you have ever paid in your life.”

The terror chief told supporters inside Lebanon that they would be rewarded for their sacrifices, and urged them to have “a little more patience,” saying the group could “remain resilient for days, weeks and months.”

He acknowledged that Israel’s killing of Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah figures dealt the group a “painful” blow, but he said Hezbollah “has started to recover by filling the gaps, appointing alternative leaders and commencing work to organize everything.

Qassem claimed the group has replaced many of the thousands of fighters who were injured last month when thousands of Hezbollah operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies exploded, in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

Sitting against a background of Hezbollah and Lebanese flags and a portrait of Nasrallah, Qassem claimed that Hezbollah’s military operations from its creation in 1982 until today have prevented the establishment of Israeli settlements on Lebanese territory. In fact, Israel has never expressed any intention to settle land in Lebanon.

Seeking to justify Hezbollah plunging Lebanon into a war, Qassem further claimed that for years Israel has not respected UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which provided for the demilitarization of southern Lebanon, to end the last war between Israel and the terror group, in 2006.

The failed implementation of 1701 has widely been blamed on Hezbollah heavily fortifying southern Lebanon and the reluctance of the Lebanese military and peacekeepers to confront them. However, Hezbollah likes to point to Israeli surveillance flights over Lebanese airspace as the problem.

Qassem said Israel has violated Lebanon’s airspace 39,000 times since 2006, and that the IDF had been preparing for a war against Lebanon even before Hamas’s attack last year.

Qassem further said that the terror group is facing an “American, European and global war to put an end to our resistance.” He said that Iran is supporting the Shiite group and “demands nothing in return,” adding that “any support from any Arab country for our fight is welcome” as well.

Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, 2023, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 32 civilians. In addition, 61 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.