Hezbollah declares ‘open-ended battle of reckoning’ with Israel

Hezbollah has declared an open-ended battle of reckoning with Israel amid a stark warning that the Middle East is facing ‘imminent collapse’, while Britain’s David Lammy has called for an immediate ceasefire. The Iran-backed military group’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said the force had entered a new phase of its battle with Israel, warning: ‘But as we are pained, you will also be pained’. His comments were made during a funeral for a top commander killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburb following days of surprise attacks that have wounded thousands of people in Lebanon and killed members of the Hezbollah.

Qassem (pictured) vowed the ongoing conflict will destroy Israel’s economy and told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will not achieve his goals. The deputy leader said Hezbollah, which has lost several senior military leaders in recent months, has ‘returned stronger, and the frontline will witness this’. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people – including two children – and wounding about 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which earlier denied having any involvement in the attacks.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy (pictured) on Sunday called for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ after a ‘worrying escalation’ between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as heightening cross-border tensions led to fears of an all-out war. ‘Our message to all parties is clear: we need an immediate ceasefire from both sides so that we can get to a political settlement, so that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security,’ Lammy said in a speech at the Labour party’s annual conference. It comes after the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon warned that the Middle East faced an ‘imminent catastrophe.’

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement on X: ‘With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer.’ Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, Israeli president Isaac Herzog (pictured right) warned that Israel is in a ‘dangerous situation’ and that there is ‘clearly the potential of escalating dramatically’. Israel had made no comments regarding their involvement in the fatal attacks before this morning, where the president said he ‘rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation’. ‘There are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days. Hezbollah has been choking Lebanon, destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves. That’s all we do,’ he added.

‘All I would say is that just at the opening of the Olympic Games 12 Israeli children of the Druze religion were murdered by a terrible missile attack, a rocket attack by Hezbollah in Majdal Shams where they were playing football.’ He added: ‘There are terrible tragedies in this war and we never want to get there, but we have the inherent right to defend ourselves and the fact is that houses have been demolished, Israelis were killed, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Jews all in the northern part of Israel where they live peacefully. They are evacuated from their home for a year and Hezbollah keeps on sending its missiles against our people endlessly – at the end you have the right to defend yourself.’

When asked about whether Israel is now at war with Lebanon, Herzog emphasised the country is ‘not interested to be at war with Lebanon… but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organisation which is also a political party called Hezbollah’. ‘It’s been armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil. We don’t want to get to war. We want to bring our citizens back to their homes on the border with Lebanon.’ Herzog also highlighted his ‘disappointment’ in the way the new UK Government has acted towards Israel, which he claims is ‘fighting for its existence’.

He said: ‘I have, personally, very close affinity with His Majesty’s Government and with Britain at large, but we also have to understand that between friends we expect friends and allies to be there for us all the time, as we are for them. ‘There is a sense of disappointment in Israel and I have expressed it to my friends.’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a night of intense rocket fire from Lebanon: ‘In the last few days, we inflicted on Hezbollah a sequence of blows that it did not imagine. If Hezbollah did not understand the message, I assure you – it will understand the message. We will do everything necessary to restore security.’

The European Union echoed Lammy’s fears and shared it is ‘extremely concerned’ about an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group, and is calling for an ‘urgent’ ceasefire, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Sunday. ‘The European Union is extremely concerned about an escalation in Lebanon after the attacks Friday in Beirut,’ Borrell said in a statement, calling for a ‘ceasefire’ along the demarcation line separating them, ‘as well as in Gaza’. Egypt’s foreign minister warned Sunday of the risk of an all-out regional war as fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah intensified, saying the escalation ‘negatively impacted’ Gaza truce talks.

Badr Abdelatty spoke ahead of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, with a chorus of international powers calling on Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink. ‘There is great concern about… the possibility of an escalation in the region leading to an all-out regional war,’ he told AFP at UN headquarters, adding that the latest spike in violence ‘negatively impacted’ ceasefire negotiations. ‘But Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has complete determination and commitment to continue’ efforts to broker a truce agreement, he said. The UN also weighed in on the escalating conflict, with the body’s chief Antonio Guterres warning that Lebanon could become ‘another Gaza’ if tensions rose any higher.

Guterres told CNN, ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York: ‘What concerns me [is] the possibility of transforming Lebanon [into] another Gaza.’ He added that he didn’t believe Hamas or Israel were interested in reaching a ceasefire deal. ‘It is for me clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire. And that is a tragedy, because this is a war that must stop,’ Guterres said. ‘Neither the government of Israel nor the Hamas really want the ceasefire.’ Israel’s key ally, the United States, said Sunday military escalation is not in Israel’s ‘best interest’. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said ‘we still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution’. The comments come after Israel and Lebanon exchanged heavy fire overnight as the IDF vowed to intensify its strikes against Hezbollah targets.

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