Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, made the announcement during a televised address, hours after the terrorists fired over 100 missiles from Lebanon toward Haifa in Israel, the New York Post reports. He began by stating that his militants were fighting back and making progress, deterring Israeli ground incursions, despite "painful blows" they have experienced in recent weeks.
He then went on to state, "We support the political efforts led by [Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih] Berri under the banner of achieving a cease-fire," according to a CNN translation. “Once the cease-fire is firmly established and diplomacy can reach it, all other details will be discussed and decisions will be made collaboratively,” he added. Up until this point, Hezbollah had vowed not to stop attacking the Jewish state until the war in Gaza ended, leading the US to believe the group is being destroyed by Israeli forces.
"For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one, and now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they've changed their tune and want a ceasefire," US State Dept spokesperson Matthew Miller said, per Reuters.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, came to the aid of Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, whose militants invaded Israel on October 7, 2023 and massacred thousands of civilians and taking over 200 hostages. After that, Israel began its counteroffensive in Gaza and has taken on attacks from Hezbollah, Iran, and other Palestinian allies.
In recent months, Israel delivered major blows to Hezbollah, specifically, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Before that, dozens of operatives were killed and thousands wounded in Lebanon after Hezbollah radios and pagers exploded in a calculated attack suspected to have been constructed by the IDF. The IDF then conducted ground raids in Lebanon, killing over 200 operatives last week. On Tuesday, Israeli defense officials reported they had also killed the planned successor of Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine, in an airstrike along with 2 other top officials in the terrorist organization.
