The head of Hezbollah’s political wing in the Lebanese parliament told Israel to “be quiet” and rescind its demand for the terror group to remove an outpost located in Israeli territory.
Mohammad Raad, leader of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, was quoted by Arab media as saying on Saturday that “the enemy is demanding the removal of the two tents and prefers that the resistance do it because it doesn’t want to enter into an undesirable war.”
The outpost was set up in early April on the Israeli side of the U.N.-marked Blue Line in the Mount Dov region. The position, located across from an Israeli military base, is manned by three to eight armed terrorists.
Speaking at a memorial ceremony held in the town of Al-Marwaniya, Raad said that it was the “enemy’s interpretation” that the outpost was within Israeli and not Lebanese territory.
He also indicated that the outpost was an example of how Israel’s security and military capabilities had weakened.
“Gone are the days when you could bomb the Tammuz nuclear reactor in Iraq without anyone batting an eyelid, and when you were not afraid of anyone. Now you can’t remove two tents because of the resistance,” he said.
“If you do not want a war, then be quiet,” Raad said in comments directed at Israel, adding that “neither you nor anyone else can demand that the resistance removes what belongs to Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that Israel via the United States is pressuring the Lebanese government to remove the outpost. A security source told the Walla news site that the Israeli army is preparing to carry out “an engineering operation to remove Hezbollah’s tents using bulldozers and tanks.”
