Hezbollah's leader warned Tuesday that the Lebanese group would retaliate if Israel continues to intensify its attacks.
Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament. Beirut is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.
Since the war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered cease-fire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel's military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war.
Since the cease-fire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack on a disputed area along the border.
In a televised speech Tuesday, Kassem said Hezbollah rejects any timetable to hand over its weapons.
"Israel's interest is not to widen the aggression because if they expand, the resistance will defend, the army will defend and the people will defend,” Kassem said. "This defense will lead to the fall of missiles inside Israel.”
Since the war ended, Hezbollah has withdrawn most of its fighters and weapons from the area along the border with Israel south of the Litani River.
Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated calls for Hezbollah to give up its weapons, angering the group’s leadership.
The cease-fire agreement left vague how Hezbollah’s weapons and military facilities north of the Litani River should be treated, saying Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the river.
Hezbollah maintains the deal only covers the area south of the Litani, while Israel and the U.S. say it mandates disarmament of the group throughout Lebanon.
Kassem said Hezbollah rejects a government vote over its weapons, saying such a decision should be unanimously backed by all Lebanese.
"No one can deprive Lebanon of its force to protect its sovereignty,” Kassem said.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon in violation of the November cease-fire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.
Under the November cease-fire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.
