Hezbollah deputy chief tells Israelis the only solution to the current war is ceasefire

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem warned Israelis on Tuesday that the only solution to the current war was a ceasefire that would pave the way for north Israel residents to return, vowing his group would not be defeated.

"I am telling the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire," Qassem said in his third address since an Israeli strike killed former leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"I am not speaking from a position of weakness, because if Israel does not want (a ceasefire), we will continue," he added.

"The resistance (Hezbollah) will not be defeated because this is its land," he said.

"After a ceasefire via indirect agreement", residents of northern Israel will "return to the north and the other steps will be drawn up", Qassem said.

"Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place" in Israel, "whether the centre, the north or the south", he said. "We will choose the point that we see appropriate".

Almost a year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into all-out war on September 23, with Israel heavily bombarding Hezbollah strongholds in south and east Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.