Response to Israeli assassinations ‘certain’: Hezbollah says

“The response is a decision and this decision will take place, God willing,” Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said in an interview with Lebanon’s al-Manar television network that was aired on Thursday.

Qassem described the visit of US envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanon, which was allegedly aimed at easing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, as a “show” in a “vicious cycle”, noting that he didn’t present “specific American proposals.”

On Wednesday, Hochstein said he believed all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah could be avoided, adding that a ceasefire deal for Gaza would also help prevent an outbreak of a wider war.

“We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel,” Hochstein said after talks with parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Naim Qassem noted that the victory of Lebanon against the Israeli enemy in the July 2006 war “is not an exceptional” incident, but “a choice that turned out to be a foundation for the future.”

He referred to the operations conducted by Hezbollah in support of Gazans who are subjected to an Israeli genocidal war, saying “We are confident that the outcome of confronting the July 2006 aggression, including thwarting all of Israel’s goals and achieving the great divine victory, will also be achieved in this battle [al-Aqsa Storm Operation], amid all these sacrifices, all this patience, and all this time.”

Noting that the current battle is “tougher and harsher” one, he said it as “a battle of choices.”

“We have a clear choice. We have the choice of liberation, independence, pride and dignity. And that’s more sophisticated than… the choice of occupation and aggression.”

“The issue needs patience, and… we are the people of patience and generosity,” he stressed.

MNA/Press TV