Hezbollah aims to inflict pain on Israel

Hezbollah's deputy secretary general Naim Qassem said yesterday his group has adopted "a new calculation" to inflict pain on Israel, even as he called for a ceasefire.

"The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness," Qassem said. "If the Israelis do not want that, we will continue," he added in a broadcast speech.

Qassem said that residents of northern Israel would be able to return home after a ceasefire deal is reached through an indirect agreement.

But he threatened that more Israelis will be displaced if the war continues, saying that "the number of uninhabited settlements will increase, and hundreds of thousands, even more than two million, will be in danger at any time, at any hour, on any day".

He added that since Israel has attacked all over Lebanon, the group has the right to attack anywhere in Israel. "We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centres and barracks," he said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa yesterday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed south and east Lebanon. It also downed an Israeli drone, without saying where.

Israel expanded its targets in its war with Hezbollah and ordered residents of 25 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows some 60 km north of the Israeli frontier.

The Israeli military said about 115 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel on Monday. At least 21 people killed in an Israeli airstrike in the north, Lebanese health officials said, while millions of Israelis took shelter from projectiles fired back across the border.

As five UN peacekeepers suffered injuries from Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Monday that the peacekeepers will stay in all positions in Lebanon despite Israeli calls for them to move.

The Middle East remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 barrage of missiles launched in response to Israel's assaults on Lebanon.