Hezbollah rejects new cease-fire deal secured by Israel and Lebanon

Hezbollah rejected the latest cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government — as the Iran-backed terror group has demanded the Jewish state’s full withdrawal from Lebanon.After the State Department helped secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem slammed the agreement as “absurd, humiliating and insulting” in a TV statement released on Thursday.Qassem’s rejection ultimately sinks any hope of peace in southern Lebanon, with the terror group firing several drones at Israeli soldiers stationed in the area.The Hezbollah chief said his main issues centered around Israel’s demand that his fighters leave southern Lebanon for good, equating such an action to “surrender.”He added that so long as Israel continues its assaults in southern Lebanon, northern Israel “will not be safe.”Large portions of northern Israel remain evacuated under the threat of Hezbollah attacks since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023.

The terror group has launched near daily attacks in solidarity with Hamas.While a cease-fire was eventually reached, the attacks resumed on Feb.28 following the joint US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, with Israel seizing about 20% of Lebanon.

The conflict has resulted in more than 3,500 deaths in Lebanon, officials said, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.Qassem’s statement came just after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the new agreement with Israel “the last chance to enter a final and comprehensive ceasefire.”The agreement, which was reached in the fourth-round of negotiations in Washington, called for Hezbollah to retreat north past the Litani river, which is currently occupied by Israel.

The deal labels Hezbollah an “enemy” of the US, Israel and Lebanon, and called for the US to help create “pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors.”The deal, howev...