Hezbollah to work with army to implement truce, declares victory over Israel

The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, pledged on Friday to coordinate closely with the Lebanese army to implement a ceasefire deal with Israel, which he said his group had agreed to “with heads held high”.

It was his first address since a ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday after more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that decimated swathes of Lebanon and killed 4,000 people including hundreds of women and children.

Qassem said Hezbollah had “approved the deal, with the resistance strong in the battlefield, and our heads held high with our right to defend [ourselves]”.

The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah will withdraw from areas south of the Litani river, which runs some 30km (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, and that the Lebanese army will deploy troops there as Israeli ground troops withdraw.

“There will be high-level coordination between the Resistance [Hezbollah] and the Lebanese army to implement the commitments of the deal,” Qassem said.

The Lebanese army has already sent additional troops to the south but is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon’s cabinet, security sources and officials have said.