Lebanese government says “Hezbollah will not immediately enter” the war

“O Hezbollah will not immediately enter the war when the ground invasion takes place. Hamas says it can resist for months and that there will be no reaction from Hezbollah or any regional organization at the start of the invasion.”said the minister, in an interview with the independent network MTV Lebanon.

Stating that “Hezbollah’s first position”, if the situation does not worsen, is “non-intervention”, the official clarified that the Lebanese government “does not have any control over them”, although “there is always dialogue”.

“We hear what the Israelis say every day about Lebanon. Hezbollah says nothing. Of course there are words from their leaders, but Mr. Hassan [Nasrallah] I haven’t said anything yet. I don’t think he wants war,” she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that if the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah goes to war against Israel in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas “it will make the worst mistake of its life” and “will miss” the 2006 conflict.

Netanyahu was responding to the announcement made Saturday by the Lebanese formation, which admitted to intervening in the current war between Israel and Hamas if necessary, although Bou Habib today minimized the immediate nature of this hypothetical intervention by Hezbollah.

On the other hand, the Lebanese Foreign Minister said that “the Americans and others must continue to pressure Israel not to start a war in Lebanon”, while his country is working “with Hezbollah to control it”.

“The forces of neighboring countries, which I will not name, are ready and have already started to move”, he warned, concluding that “when there is a cause you cannot stop the resistance. Even if they manage to eliminate Hamas, they will not be able to do so . There will be another Hamas because people are oppressed the way they are oppressed.”

Since October 8, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been involved in cross-border attacks in the border areas between the two countries, where there have also been actions claimed by Palestinian factions present in Lebanese territory.

The escalation has raised fears that Lebanon could become a second front in the war, while the Lebanese government maintains contacts domestically and internationally to try to contain it.

The Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen, taking two hundred hostages.

In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, a movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and which is classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States, bombing several of the group’s infrastructures in the Gaza Strip and imposing a total siege on the territory with cuts of supply of water, fuel and electricity.

The conflict has already caused thousands of deaths and injuries, among military personnel and civilians, in both territories.

Read Also: Netanyahu warns Hezbollah of the devastating risk of going to war