Marco Rubio is tied to a new push on Lebanon and Israel, but Hezbollah rejected the framework agreement signed in Washington DC on Friday. On Saturday, strikes in southern Lebanon killed one person and injured two, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Naim Qassem called the deal “humiliating, shameful and a surrender of sovereignty” and said Hezbollah would not abandon the field. He also rejected linking Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament.
Naim Qassem rejects the text
Qassem said, “We will continue as a resistance in the field to defeat the occupation [Israel] … We did not leave the field under difficult circumstances and we will not abandon it,” placing Hezbollah in direct opposition to the deal’s stated path toward normalisation. The agreement says Lebanon and Israel will pursue direct negotiations under US mediation, establish permanent channels of direct communication, and begin drafting a comprehensive peace and security agreement.
The same text also says the two states recognise each other's right to exist in peace and intend to formally end a state of war. Zeina Khodr said, “The word withdrawal is not in [the] text,” and that detail leaves the timing and scope of any Israeli pullback unresolved.
Southern Lebanon strike fallout
National News Agency reported that Israeli forces bombed near Markaba and Nabatieh al-Fawqa on Saturday morning. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said the casualties were the first since the deal was signed, making the post-agreement violence immediate rather than delayed.
That same day, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and other officials suggested that Israel might remain in Lebanon regardless of Hezbollah's disarmament. Bezalel Smotrich said, “We are there until Hezbollah disarms, and I think also beyond that, because we need defendable borders,” while Israel Katz said he and Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli forces to prepare for an extended stay in the so-called security zone in southern Lebanon.
Beirut and the security zone
Friday evening protests in Beirut showed the political cost already spreading beyond the battlefield. Hezbollah supporters burned tyres and blocked a road leading to the airport, angered by the agreement, Israeli forces remaining in Lebanese territory and continuing Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army called on citizens to act responsibly after calls for demonstrations in Beirut and other areas on Saturday, and Public Prosecutor Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj ordered security forces to prevent riots and identify rioters for legal action. The next test is whether the agreement’s disarmament requirement can be enforced while Hezbollah publicly refuses it and Israeli forces stay in the security zone.
