HEZBOLLAH CHIEF DISPELS RUMORS OF BORDER DEAL WITH ISRAEL BEFORE GAZA CEASEFIRE

The leader of Lebanon's resistance, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, vowed in a speech on 17 July that his group would expand its range of targets and strike new Israeli settlements if Tel Aviv continues its indiscriminate attacks on civilians. 'Continuing to target civilians will push the resistance to launch missiles and target new settlements that were not targeted before,' Nasrallah said in a speech commemorating Ashura. An Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Umm al-Tout on 16 July killed five people, including three children. Hezbollah responded by firing dozens of Katyusha rockets at the Saar and Gesher Haziv settlements in the western Galilee. 'All that is being circulated about a ready agreement on the situation on the Lebanese front is incorrect. The future of the situation in the south will be decided in light of the results of the battle in which the resistance and the support fronts will be victorious,' Nasrallah added, responding to western efforts for de-escalation. Led by senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein, the US has been advancing a proposal to push Hezbollah away from the border and work towards a demarcation agreement. Nasrallah has previously said that the border between Israel and Lebanon is already demarcated and that what is necessary is an eventual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land. Hezbollah has also repeatedly said that any negotiation can only take place once the war in Gaza ends. 'Our front in Lebanon will not stop as long as the aggression against Gaza, its people, and its resistance continues in its various forms … in the event of a ceasefire, the party concerned with negotiating and providing answers is the Lebanese state,' Nasrallah said on Wednesday. Responding to increased Israeli threats against Lebanon and about a recent Hebrew media report that Tel Aviv faces a significant shortage of tanks due to losses in Gaza, Nasrallah said, 'If your tanks come to Lebanon and its south, you will not suffer a shortage of tanks because you will have no t anks left.' He also praised the supporting fronts, particularly the operations of the Yemeni army - which has devastated the Israeli economy and has resulted in the port of Eilat's bankruptcy. 'This has serious repercussions on the entity.' 'Israel finds itself unable to achieve its goals and is suffering in its army, its security apparatus, its government, its political parties, [it is dealing with] reverse migration, self-confidence issues, and lack of confidence of its people to remain [in Israel], and [is suffering from] the world's view of it. This is the result of fighting and steadfastness," Nasrallah added. He also held Washington 'fully responsible for the massacres committed by the Israeli enemy.' Source: National news agency - Lebanon