Hezbollah's Fadlallah says Israeli army not in full control of 'any village' in south

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Thursday that the Israeli army was not fully in control of any south Lebanon village.

"Until now, the enemy has been unable to take full control of any village," Fadlallah told a press conference at the parliament, adding that Israel was applying "a scorched earth policy through the systematic destruction of villages... seeking to impose a buffer zone with no people, buildings, fields or trees".

"They thought that by assassinating our leader and committing crimes against our people they would achieve what they want, and some rushed to reap the results, but the resistance has begun a new phase of resisting the aggression," Fadlallah said.

"The choice of the resistance leadership is to continue fighting with all means to prevent the enemy from achieving its goals and force it to stop its aggression," he added.

Fadlallah said the aim of his group now is to stop the war but he refused to go into details saying that parliament speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati are leading the efforts.

"Our goal today is to end the aggression. We will not go into any detail related to the mechanism or solutions," he said when asked whether Hezbollah still insists that it will only stop fighting once Israel’s offensive on Gaza stops.

Fadlallah said that Israel has not been able to push deeper into Lebanon, stop Hezbollah rocket fire or create the conditions for its citizens to return to communities in the north near the border, which Israel says is its main war aim.