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28-03-2026
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has called for national unity as Israel continues its military assault on Lebanon, vowing to continue fighting “without limits” as Israeli aerial and ground attacks have killed more than 1,000 people across the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, Qassem said the country faced two choices; “either surrender or give up our land … or inevitable confrontation and resistance” against Israel.
Qassem also said Lebanon should not agree to negotiations with the Israeli government amid Israel’s continued bombardment of its northern neighbor.
“Negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire amounts to imposing surrender and stripping Lebanon of its capabilities, especially since negotiations are fundamentally rejected with an enemy that occupies land and continues daily aggression,” he said.
“We call for national unity against the Israeli-American enemy under one title at this stage: stopping the aggression to liberate the land and the people. All other issues can be discussed afterward.”
Intensified Israeli attacks on Lebanon began in early March after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the start of the US and Israel’s war on Iran on February 28.
In addition to air strikes, the Israeli military has pushed deeper into Lebanese territory as part of a ground invasion that Israel says aims to root out Hezbollah fighters.
The Lebanese armed group has continued to fire into northern Israel while clashing with Israeli troops on the ground in Lebanon.
The escalating conflict, which has killed at least 1,072 people across Lebanon and displaced more than 1.2 million others, has drawn global condemnation and growing calls for de-escalation.
Far-right Israeli lawmakers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have called for the annexation of southern Lebanon amid intensified military operations in the area. The annexation push has drawn condemnation from foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been calling for negotiations to try to end the deadly violence.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has outlawed Hezbollah military activity and said it wanted to engage in direct talks with Israel.
The Israeli government has shown no sign of tempering its military offensive, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying last week that displaced residents of southern Lebanon will not be able to return to their homes until northern Israel is safe.
Earlier, Israeli forces have attacked the Qasmiyeh Bridge, a key crossing linking Lebanon’s south to the rest of the country, in an escalation that President Joseph Aoun called a “prelude to ground invasion”.
Sunday’s strike on the vital artery and other civilian infrastructure came after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to destroy all crossings over the Litani River and homes close to the border between the two countries.
The bombing of the bridge marks an escalation of the Israeli military’s campaign against Hezbollah, which resumed on March 2 after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into Israel in response to the Israeli-US killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Aoun said the attacks on the bridge were “an attempt to sever the geographical connection between the southern Litani region and the rest of Lebanese territory”.
He said they fell “within suspicious schemes to establish a buffer zone along the Israeli border, solidify the reality of the occupation and seek Israeli expansion within Lebanese territory”. (Int’l News Desk)
