Hezbollah says Israeli attacks will be met with 'appropriate' response

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said that Israeli attacks on Lebanon would be met with an “appropriate” response after deadly strikes on the country’s south on Saturday, urging authorities to halt “humiliating” negotiations with Israel.

Israel “must clearly understand that its attacks, violations and attempts to impose a fait accompli cannot continue, and will be met with an appropriate response”, the group said in a statement, adding that Lebanese authorities “must not insist on continuing along the humiliating path of direct negotiations and providing the enemy with free concessions”.

Earlier, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday were a “clear message” on negotiations between the two countries, ahead of the next round of US-sponsored talks early next month in Rome.

Aoun condemned the “ongoing Israeli attacks” on the south and “repeated violations of the framework agreement… and international law on protecting civilians, which led to the death of an entire family in the village of Ansar”, according to a statement from his office, adding that “these violations are a clear message on the negotiation process”.

At least nine people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency said.

Israel wants ‘more serious’ talks with Lebanon

Israel wants new and more ambitious US-brokered talks with Lebanon after carrying out deadly strikes targeting Hezbollah, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The Israeli strikes against Hezbollah “should jumpstart the talks and make them much more serious, not do the opposite”, Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman told AFP.

“And I think it will. It will hopefully move these talks along because the enemy here is clear and the enemy is Hezbollah,” he said.

Israel said that it carried out the strikes after Hezbollah attacked inside what Israel calls a security zone inside southern Lebanon. Three Israeli soldiers were seriously injured, Netanyahu’s office said.