Hezbollah official says resistance only option in response to Israeli strikes

A senior official of Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Saturday that "resistance" remains the only option in response to the latest strikes by Israel in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.



"What option is left for us to defend ourselves and our country? What choice do we have but resistance? We no longer have any other option," Mahmoud Qomati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political council, said during a solidarity sit-in held in support of Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons.



He described the recent Israeli strikes as "a new massacre and a new aggression that exceeds the pace previously witnessed during the war on Lebanon," according to Lebanon's news website Elnashra.



He added that a ceasefire agreement has been in place for a year but "is not being implemented," questioning whether the Lebanese state and "the segment aligned with the enemy" had concluded that diplomacy and international relations were ineffective.