Northern Israel mayor slams emerging Hezbollah ceasefire as ‘surrender’
Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern denounced an emerging ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, warning it could lead to “another October 7th” in Israel’s northern region.
The evacuated northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Sept. 5, 2024. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL
Questioning the wisdom of easing military pressure on Hezbollah, Stern said in a statement, “I don’t understand how we went from total victory to total surrender. Why aren’t we finishing what we started?! We managed to destabilize Hezbollah, and instead of continuing to crush the organization and demolish it to dust, we’re giving it oxygen and performing resuscitation?”
He also warned that the agreement would mean the city’s 22,000 residents would get back “a destroyed city without security and without a future.”
The emerging agreement is believed to include a ceasefire, Hezbollah’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon followed by the departure of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory.
It is believed that the US will lead an international team to monitor the ceasefire while Israeli military would maintain the right to respond with force if Hezbollah violates the agreement. According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is forbidden from operating in southern Lebanon south of the Litani River.
On Sunday, Hezbollah launched 250 rockets and drones at northern and central Israel and the Israeli Air Force stepped up its airstrikes on Beirut.
After the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets and launching drones at northern Israel communities daily. More than 68,000 residents of northern Israel are displaced from their homes. Hezbollah leaders have repeatedly said they would continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
