BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed on Friday to coordinate closely with the Lebanese army to implement a ceasefire deal with Israel, which his group said it had agreed to “with its head held high.”
It was his first speech since a ceasefire took effect Wednesday after more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that decimated parts of Lebanon and killed 4,000 people, including hundreds of women and children.
Qassem said Hezbollah had “approved the agreement, with strong resistance on the battlefield and our heads held high with our right to defend ourselves.”
The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah will withdraw from areas south of the Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, and that the Lebanese army will deploy troops there as troops withdraw. Israeli land forces.
“There will be high-level coordination between the Resistance (Hezbollah) and the Lebanese army to implement the commitments of the agreement,” Qassem said.
The Lebanese army has already sent additional troops to the south but is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon’s cabinet, sources and security officials said.
That effort has been complicated by the continued presence of Israeli troops in Lebanese territory. The agreement gives them a full 60 days to complete their withdrawal.
The Israeli military has imposed restrictions on people returning to villages along Lebanon’s border with Israel and has shot at people in those villages in recent days, calling those moves a violation of the truce.
Both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have accused Israel of violating the ceasefire in those cases and launching an airstrike on the Litani River on Thursday.
Qassem said the group had achieved an even greater “divine victory” against Israel than was declared after the two enemies last fought in 2006.
“To those who were betting that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, your bets have failed,” he said.