Southern Lebanese defy intensified Israeli strikes, echo Hezbollah’s pledge to resist

Local media reports said several areas in southern Lebanon were bombed Thursday, including the villages of Taybeh and Aita al-Jabal, near the Lebanese border.

The Zionist regime’s occupation forces issued evacuation orders for several southern Lebanese villages and towns.

A lumber factory between the towns of Tura and Abbasiya was struck, with at least one person reported dead in the attack.

Lebanon’s National News Agency confirmed new Israeli raids near the towns of Toura and Aabbasiyyeh in the Tyre area, and in the southern region of Taybeh.

A health ministry statement said casualties were reported in the attack targeting the Tyre district.

Local media also reported an Israeli warplane flying at a low altitude over Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Along Lebanon's border with the Israeli-occupied territories, the regime has continued demolitions and attacks despite a ceasefire in the war with the Hezbollah resistance movement last year.

Zionist regime’s strikes on Lebanon continue in violation of a US-brokered truce in November 2024.

Farid Nanoo, the mayor of Tayr Debba municipality in the Tyre District, said in an interview with the Lebanese-based al-Mayadeen news network that the relentless Israeli strikes had “failed to scare the local population.”

“The enemy has not understood until this moment that his attacks and strikes do not scare our people and we will remain in our land,” Debba said.

He denied reports that the relentless Israeli strikes had driven residents to flee the region.

“Contrary to the claims of Western media reports, no one from our town or neighboring regions has left their homes,” he said.

Nanoo said that workers in close coordination with residents had now “started the debris removal operation and the electricity and communication system will be connected in the coming hours.”

Hezbollah, in a statement on Thursday, vowed to defend itself against Israeli aggression.

"We reaffirm our legitimate right to defend ourselves against an enemy that imposes war on our country," the statement read.

"We affirm our legitimate right to resist occupation and aggression and to stand by our army and our people to protect the sovereignty of our country," it said.

The movement also issued a firm rejection of any political negotiations with Israel, saying such talks would “not serve the national interest.”

Hezbollah stated that while Lebanon is bound by a ceasefire, it is not obligated to be drawn into political negotiations with Israel.

In a letter to the Lebanese administration, Hezbollah has already rejected any notion of disarmament as part of the November 2024 ceasefire deal with Israel, calling such demands unacceptable. Hezbollah stressed it will not bow to Israel's "blackmail and extortion."

The development comes following the expansion of the Western media intimidation maneuvers of the Zionists against Lebanon, at the same time as the political pressures of the United States to bring Beirut to direct negotiations with the Israeli regime.

Speaking at a recent Manama Dialogue Forum in Bahrain, Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria, claimed that regional stability depends on the disarmament of Hezbollah’s military power and advancing border discussions with Israel.

Barrack’s call for Hezbollah’s disarmament came as the Israeli regime has, over the past years, repeatedly violated Lebanon’s sovereignty through airstrikes, drone incursions, and cross-border attacks.

Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah on November 27, 2024, after suffering heavy losses on the battlefield and failing to achieve its goals despite killing over 4,000 people in Lebanon.

Since then, the Israeli military has kept attacking Lebanon on an almost daily basis and has refused to withdraw its occupation troops from the Arab country.

The Zionist regime’s occupation forces remain positioned at five locations inside Lebanese territory and continue to shell parts of southern and eastern Lebanon, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Zionist regime’s aggression has, since the November ceasefire, martyred about 300 people and wounded more than 650, including women and children, according to the Lebanese government data.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem criticized on Friday the US role in Lebanon, slamming Washington as a sponsor of aggression rather than an impartial mediator.