Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Monday that Israel should withdraw from the occupied border areas in southern Lebanon, rejecting the extension of the cease-fire arrangements to Feb. 18.

Naim Qassem insisted Hezbollah had emerged from the fight with Israel victorious, despite painful and unprecedented setbacks, and was unwilling to concede the group’s domestic position. Qassem also expressed Hezbollah’s satisfaction with Lebanon’s post-war political direction and said his group had a productive and positive relationship with Lebanon’s new president and prime minister-designate.

The medical staff and their patients have moved out of the underground parking lot where they had been based since September 2024. Despite a ceasefire with the Lebanese movement and incentives from the state,

Lebanese Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Monday that the group would not accept any justifications to extend the period for Israeli troops' withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

The ceasefire agreement that paused the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon will likely be extended when it expires next week, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The proximity to the Lebanese border made Manara so vulnerable in the war between Israel and Hezbollah that it became a symbol of the heavy price of fighting, with rockets and explosive drones damaging the majority of homes.

No justification for delay, says Hezbollah’s Qassem on Israeli pullback from southern Lebanon - Anadolu Ajansı

The government of Lebanon, the government of Israel and the government of the United States will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after Oct. 7, 2023,” the

Marielle Boutros, a project coordinator in Lebanon for ACN, said, "The war was hell for us. Every Christian here has thought about leaving the country ... Many people are still struggling ... and the situation is anything but simple – often there is no longer enough money at the end of the month for food."

While a cease-fire is in effect with the Palestinian Hamas in the south, the Israeli military ramped up its operations over the weekend against terrorists in the north and west, Israel Defense