BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: The Zionist entity’s military has been incapable of occupying even a single village in Lebanon since invading the country six weeks ago, Hezbollah said on Monday. Zionist entity troops on September 30 began what the military claimed were “localized and targeted raids” in Lebanon’s south, a week after escalating air strikes across Lebanon. “After 45 days of bloody fighting, the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village,” Hezbollah Spokesman Mohammad Afif told a news conference in south Beirut, a stronghold of the movement and a repeated target of the Zionist entity’s air strikes.

The Zionist entity has said its aim is to make its northern border safe for the return of tens of thousands of settlers who were evacuated when Hezbollah began firing rockets into the entity’s northern areas. On November 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops at the Lebanon border that the operation aimed to push Hezbollah back over the Litani River. He said a second goal was to stop any attempt to rearm and the third was “to respond firmly to any action taken against us”, according to his office. On Monday Hezbollah spokesman Afif said the group’s fighters had repulsed the entity’s troops in Khiam, about six kilometers from the border. He added that the troops also failed in attempts “to penetrate on several fronts at Bint Jbeil”, about 17 kilometers southwest of Khiam.

Ceasefire prospects

The Zionist entity said on Monday there was progress in talks about a Lebanon ceasefire and indicated Russia could play a part by stopping Hezbollah rearming via Syria, although Afif said it had not received any new truce proposals. Hezbollah said political contacts were under way involving Tehran, Washington and Moscow, whilst also saying it had enough weapons for a “long war” and keeping up rocket fire into the Zionist entity. In Jerusalem, Zionist Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the war against Hezbollah was not yet over. The main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement, he said, though there was “a certain progress” in talks.

Saar, addressing a Jerusalem news conference, said the entity was working with United States on a ceasefire. He said a basic principle for any agreement had to be that Hezbollah would not be able to bring weapons into Lebanon from Syria. “It is vital to the success of any arrangement in Lebanon,” he said. “And the Russians are, as you know, present in Syria. And if they are in agreement with this principle, I think they can contribute effectively to this objective.”

Russia deployed forces into Syria nearly a decade ago to support President Bashar Al-Assad in the civil war there. Hezbollah also sent fighters to help Assad, and carved out big sway on the ground alongside other Iran-backed groups. Syria is widely seen as a major conduit for Iran to supply weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Zionist entity has struck targets in Syria regularly during the conflict.

A Zionist airstrike temporarily cut Syria’s main Homs-Damascus highway on Monday, Syrian media reported. In Lebanon, relatives held funerals for 20 people killed in a strike on the southern town of Deir Qanoun-Ras al-Ain, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated with Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally Amal. The Zionist entity’s military said more than 150 rockets were fired from Lebanon. One barrage set fire to parked cars and a building in a Haifa suburb. Three people suffered moderate and light wounds, the national ambulance service said.

‘Testing the waters’

In Beirut, Hezbollah official Afif linked intensified political contacts to the looming change of US leadership. “There is a great movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals,” he said. “We hear a lot of talk, but so far, according to my information, nothing official has reached Lebanon or us in this regard,” he told a news conference. The contacts were “in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas”. The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a UN Resolution that ended a war between the group and the Zionist entity in 2006. The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani river to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and the entity have accused each other of violating the resolution. — Agencies