Hezbollah Will Not Surrender Under Threat From Israel, Says Its Chief

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on July 6 that his group will not surrender nor lay down its weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the Lebanese militants to disarm.

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BEIRUT -

"This threat will not make us accept surrender," he said in a televised speech to thousands of his supporters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, during the Shiite Muslim religious commemoration of Ashura.

Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024 have repeatedly vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms while demanding that Israel comply with a November 2024 cease-fire that ended the fighting.

Mr Qassem, who succeeded long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah whom Israel killed last September, said the group's fighters would not abandon their arms and asserted that Israel's "aggression" must first stop.