Claims killing of Khamenei violated Nov. 2024 ceasefire deal

Hezbollah chief: Attacks on Israel a response to truce violations, ‘unrelated to any other battle’

Naim Qassem asserts Lebanese terror group is ‘responding to Israeli-American aggression and this is a legitimate right’; Macron urges Netanyahu not to launch ground offensive

In a televised address, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Wednesday said his terror group’s resumption of rocket attacks on Israel this week is a response to Israel’s continued presence and airstrikes in Lebanon since the November 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.

The speech came amid the Lebanese government’s searing accusations that the Iran-backed proxy is dragging Lebanon into a regional war, after the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iran that the Islamic Republic has responded to with missile and drone strikes across the region.

“By God, how strange you are,” Qassem said in the speech, addressing the Lebanese government. “What is your response to the wide-scale aggression?”

The renewed fighting against Israel, he claimed, “is not linked to any other battle; what we want is to stop the aggression.”

But he also said that the renewed rocket attacks on Israel “are a response to 15 months of violations against us, including the targeting of the great religious authority,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader who was killed at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign on Saturday.

“To anyone asking about the timing” of Hezbollah’s resumption of attacks, Qassem said: “Were we expected to remain endlessly patient?”

“What Israel did after the rocket salvo was not a response. It was an aggression that had been prepared in advance,” he continued.

“Hezbollah and its Islamic resistance are responding to the Israeli-American aggression and this is a legitimate right… For us this is an existential defense.”

He added that the Lebanese government’s formal decision in August to bring all weapons in the country, chiefly Hezbollah’s, under state control, “was a grave error that has weakened the position of the Lebanese state and legitimized Israel’s freedom of aggression.”

“As long as there is occupation — resistance and arms are a right,” he said.

Qassem also criticized Beirut’s announcement Monday of an “immediate ban” on Hezbollah’s military activities and fresh demand that it surrender its weapons.

“Instead of the Lebanese government moving to condemn the Israeli-American aggression and look for ways to confront it, it turned against the resistance to complete its error and align itself with Israeli demands.”

“The topic of the resistance and the weapons of the resistance is not a subject of dispute for anyone or with anyone. It is a legitimate right. We are fighting in Lebanon in defense of our people, the future of our children and our country,” he added.

Also Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him not to order a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to the French readout.

The call came a day Israel deployed troops deeper into southern Lebanon, beyond the five posts it currently holds, “as part of an enhanced forward defense posture” amid the attacks by Hezbollah.

“It is important for the parties to return to the ceasefire agreement,” wrote Macron on X.

Macron also called Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, stressing “the need for Hezbollah to immediately cease its attacks against Israel and beyond. This strategy of escalation constitutes a major error that endangers the entire region.”

“France will continue, with its partners, to support the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces, so that they can fully assume their sovereignty missions and put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah,” added Macron.

There was no immediate statement on the call from Netanyahu’s office.