Beirut – The Lebanese Hezbollah movement agreed to a truce with Israel with its head held high, the leader of the Shiite movement Naim Qasim said today in a televised speech, according to Reuters. He made his first public appearance since the ceasefire came into force on Wednesday. According to him, Hezbollah has achieved a great victory. In his speech, Kásim pointed to military results, which, according to Reuters, are apparently exaggerated.
“I say we won because we prevented the enemy (Israel) from destroying Hezbollah and wiping out the resistance,” Qasim said. According to him, Hezbollah even achieved greater success than during the previous battles with Israel in 2006.
Qasim has only now confirmed that Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire. He said the movement would coordinate with the Lebanese army, which is expected to take control of southern Lebanon, from where Hezbollah has so far attacked Israel. “The Israeli army must withdraw (from Lebanon),” Qasim continued.
According to him, Hezbollah approached the truce with its head held high and was able to inflict heavy blows on Israel. “The number of evacuees (in northern Israel) increased from 70,000 to several hundred thousand people,” Kasim said. He added that the Israeli army had many dead and heavy losses in equipment.
However, Israeli authorities claim that 60,000 people had to be evacuated due to shelling of the north of the country by Hezbollah, which is less than Qasim said today. The Israeli military also said it had inflicted widespread damage and casualties on Hezbollah. According to her, 2,500 members of the movement died, including Qasim’s predecessor, Hasan Nasrallah.
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Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
