Hezbollah chief vows not to surrender

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naeem Qassem, in his first speech since the latest escalation between Israel and the Shiite militia, vowed Wednesday evening not to surrender and stressed that resistance was their only choice.

“We will not hesitate to defend our rights and we will not surrender to our enemy,” Qassem said in his first statement after the start of the war between his movement and Israel.

“We will face aggression, which is for us an existential defense that will continue until our goals are achieved,” the Hezbollah leader said.

Qassem stressed that Hezbollah would be “victorious” and that the movement did not fear this clash.

He accused Israel of “waging a war of extermination” against his movement.

“What Israel did was not a response to a barrage of rockets, but rather a premeditated act of aggression,” he said in a recorded television message.

He promised that as long as the Israeli occupation exists in the Lebanese territories, “the resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right, legally, internationally and in accordance with the constitution and the government’s declaration.”

Qassem called on opponents of the movement in Lebanon not to stab the resistance in the back.

“Let us unite to confront this enemy as a priority, and then we can discuss and agree on our other issues,” the Hezbollah leader told his political opponents in the country.

Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on Monday evening in response to the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Since then, the Israeli army has resumed large-scale attacks in Lebanon. Hezbollah also continues to fire rockets at Israeli targets.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the toll from Israeli attacks, from dawn Monday until Wednesday, rose to 72 dead and 437 injured.