The latest from Lebanon: Hezbollah's deputy leader vows to fight on after Nasrallah's death

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00:00Rawad, what's the latest now from Beirut?

00:03Now we just, we just heard from the deputy leader of Hezbollah, the deputy of Secretary

00:11General Hassan Nasrallah Sheikh Naeem Asim, he just addressed the supporters of Hezbollah

00:17and the rest of the Lebanese in a televised speech where he looked very tired.

00:22There was no backdrop like the usual speeches we saw before for Secretary General of Hezbollah

00:28Hassan Nasrallah.

00:29He mourned the death of Nasrallah as a great leader for the organization.

00:33However, what's important is that he mentioned that the organization, despite all this disarray,

00:38despite all the assassination of its commanders, including Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah,

00:43that the organization will continue its fight against Israel and that it is ready for any

00:48potential ground invasion if it happens in southern Lebanon.

00:53No call for a ceasefire whatsoever in that speech.

00:56No retreat from the earlier objectives of the war that Hassan Nasrallah himself had

01:01put forward on the table before his assassination.

01:04No explicit decoupling the conflict in Lebanon with the conflict in Gaza.

01:08And absolutely no chance for a ceasefire in his speech.

01:12He mentioned that this is going to be a long war, and he called on for his supporters to

01:17be patient and trust that the organization is still stable and can hold on this fight.

01:23And what is interesting is that shortly after his speech, we heard remarks from the caretaker,

01:28Prime Minister Najib Mikati, after his meeting with the Speaker of Parliament, Nabir Birri,

01:33who is possibly the ally of Hezbollah, yet he has great connections with the West and

01:39the Americans and Western powers.

01:42Mikati, after his meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament, delivered, on the contrary,

01:47the exact opposite of what the deputy of Nasrallah delivered in his speech.

01:53So Mikati just said moments ago that as soon as there is a ceasefire, the government is

02:00ready to send the army and deploy the army south of the Litani River.

02:05He also mentioned that the Speaker of Parliament, Nabir Birri, is ready to call for a ceasefire

02:10and that as soon as possible, parliament will be called to convene to elect a president

02:16for all of Lebanon and not any controversial figure or confrontational figure to any party.

02:22So we're seeing a dichotomy here.

02:23Hezbollah is saying one thing.

02:25It's saying that this war is ongoing, that it will be a long war, that it is ready to

02:29fight Israel.

02:30On the other hand, we're seeing the Speaker of Parliament, Nabir Birri, and the caretaker,

02:34Prime Minister Najib Mikati, calling for a ceasefire, saying they are ready to deploy

02:38the army south of the Litani River, and saying that they are ready to call for the parliament

02:44to elect a unified president for Lebanon in such a historical moment of time.

02:50And indeed, this is coming as the humanitarian situation in Lebanon is only getting worse.

02:55The health ministry has said more than 1,000 people have been killed, 6,000 wounded in

03:00the past two weeks, not to mention the close to a million people, the fifth of the population,

03:04who have been forced to flee.

03:06Indeed, in particular, the upper estimate is that one million people have evacuated

03:11southern Lebanon, part of the Bekaa Valley, as well as Beirut's southern suburbs.

03:17Over 120,000 of them are living currently in dire humanitarian conditions in evacuation

03:25centers, which were opened by the government, roughly around 750 evacuation centers were

03:31opened across different areas of the country, mostly in safer areas.

03:35Around 750 schools, as I mentioned before, are now evacuation centers, with the school

03:42year start has been fully, until things settle.

03:46So, it is a real humanitarian crisis, and it is unclear for how long the country can sustain it.

03:52Rawad, thank you for that.

03:53That's Rawad Taha reporting for us from Beirut.

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