{"id":503097,"date":"2026-06-20T21:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/503097\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T21:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:49:13","slug":"hezbollah-chief-claims-us-israel-plotting-to-destabilize-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/503097\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah chief claims US, Israel plotting to destabilize group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hezbollah\u2019s Secretary-General Naim Qassem<\/a> described Lebanon as entering a new phase, saying it was facing dangerous conspiracies and threats in a Friday speech.<\/p>\n

In the speech, Qassem claimed that there is a coordinated campaign aimed at ending Hezbollah\u2019s presence in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Israel and the US] sought to close air, sea, and land crossings to prevent the arrival of weapons, technology, and anything else that would strengthen the Resistance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme aimed to block reconstruction efforts so that people would remain displaced and homeless, and to turn the Resistance’s support base against the Resistance itself. They imposed a suffocating financial blockade to prevent us from addressing the situation or recovering,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Qassem also accused Israel and the US of reneging on the November 2024 ceasefire<\/a> agreement due to Assad\u2019s fall, claiming that they believed the balance of power in the region had shifted.<\/p>\n

The Hezbollah chief, who took over following Israel\u2019s assassination of previous head Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine, asserted that Lebanon entered a \u201cmost dangerous phase\u201d in his speech.<\/p>\n

Still, Qassem rejected the idea that death can deter the terrorist group, stating that \u201c[Hezbollah is] a group that does not fear death, and we are always victorious in confronting those who threaten us with death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe massive losses are less than surrender and defeat. If we are capable of victory, why should we surrender?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

The IDF has attacked over 100 Hezbollah targets<\/a> in Lebanon over the past day, the military said in a statement Friday. Moreover, dozens of terrorists were said to have been killed.<\/p>\n

Four IDF soldiers fell in battle Friday morning, the IDF announced, including commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, a source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire starting at 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

In spite of this, air-alert sirens were activated in Israel at around 4:50 p.m., and Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon were reported by local sources after the ceasefire’s intended start time as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hezbollah\u2019s Secretary-General Naim Qassem described Lebanon as entering a new phase, saying it was facing dangerous conspiracies and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86,85,91,46,12431,88,1486,71283,43,230236],"class_list":["post-503097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-hezbollah","tag-il","tag-iran-israel-war","tag-israel","tag-israel-news","tag-lebanon","tag-memorandum-of-understanding","tag-naim-qassem","tag-news","tag-sayyed-hassan-nasrallah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}