Hezbollah deputy chief tells Israelis the only solution to the current war is ceasefire

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem warned Israelis on Tuesday that the only solution to the current war was a ceasefire that would pave the way for north Israel residents to return, vowing his group would not be defeated.

"I am telling the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire," Qassem said in his third address since an Israeli strike killed former leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"I am not speaking from a position of weakness, because if Israel does not want (a ceasefire), we will continue," he added.

"The resistance (Hezbollah) will not be defeated because this is its land," he said.

"After a ceasefire via indirect agreement", residents of northern Israel will "return to the north and the other steps will be drawn up", Qassem said.

"Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place" in Israel, "whether the centre, the north or the south", he said. "We will choose the point that we see appropriate".

Almost a year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into all-out war on September 23, with Israel heavily bombarding Hezbollah strongholds in south and east Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.

Israel later announced it began ground operations in south Lebanon, and Hezbollah fighters and Israel forces have been battling at the border, with the Iran-backed group repeatedly saying it has faced Israeli infiltration attempts.

In the pre-recorded video also released on social media, Qassem appeared seated at a desk with small Lebanese and Hezbollah flags and a framed image of Nasrallah, in contrast to the deputy chief's two previous, darkly lit speeches since Nasrallah was killed on September 27.

Qassem said his group had begun an "equation of hurting the enemy", repeatedly targeting north Israel's Haifa area and warned that "with the continuation of the war, the number of uninhabited" Israeli towns will increase.

"More than two million people will be in the danger zone," he said.

Hezbollah opened what it says is a "support front" for Gaza from Lebanon, launching cross-border attacks into Israel the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.