The leader of Hezbollah has urged the Lebanese government to walk away from direct talks with Israel.
Lebanese officials are set for talks in Washington DC as Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 2,055 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the country. A further 6,588 were wounded, the ministry said, while around 1 million people are reported to have been displaced.
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Kassem said in a televised address ahead of the talks tomorrow that “negotiations are pointless”.
“We call for a historic and heroic position to cancel these negotiations,” he said, saying the ceasefire that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024 should return.
The fighting was sparked on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel. This came after the US and Israel had attacked Iran.
On April 9, Israeli Prime Minsiter Bejmain Netanyahu said he was willing to discuss peaceful relations and the disarmament of Hezbollah. He did not commit to a ceasefire and the bombing of Lebanon has continued up to the eve of direct talks.
Sir Keir Starmer has called Israel’s strikes “wrong” and said they were having “devastating humanitarian consequences and pushing Lebanon into a crisis”.
Rejecting the talks, Hezbollah held a demonstration in the country’s capital, Beirut, along with its allies. It has called the decision to negotiate “treason”.
The Lebanese president’s office has said talks tomorrow would focus on conditions for a ceasefire and formal negotiations could follow if discussions are initially successful, the BBC reported.
But Israel’s embassy in Washington said talks tomorrow will be the start of formal peace negotiations.
Over the weekend, Israel stepped up strikes and ground invasion in southern Lebanon. It hopes to create a security zone around 20 miles from the border, along the Litani River.
In Bint Jbeil, a town in southern Lebanon, hundreds of Hezbollah fighters are encircled, local media said. The Israeli military said 100 Hezbollah gunmen had been killed after it began ground operations in and around Bint Jbeil.
The town is strategically important, providing a key vantage point along with other elevated positions in the area.
Israel did not comment on its own military casualties. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm fatalities.
Attacks further in Lebanon were scaled back following a series of strikes in the heart of Beirut and its busy residential and commercial areas. Around 350 people were killed.
