BEIRUT, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Saturday that "resistance" remains the only option in response to the latest strikes by Israel in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
"What option is left for us to defend ourselves and our country? What choice do we have but resistance? We no longer have any other option," Mahmoud Qomati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political council, said during a solidarity sit-in held in support of Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons.
He described the recent Israeli strikes as "a new massacre and a new aggression that exceeds the pace previously witnessed during the war on Lebanon," according to Lebanon's news website Elnashra.
He added that a ceasefire agreement has been in place for a year but "is not being implemented," questioning whether the Lebanese state and "the segment aligned with the enemy" had concluded that diplomacy and international relations were ineffective.
On Friday, Israel launched intense airstrikes on the Ain al-Hilweh camp in the city of Sidon, as well as other areas in the Bekaa Valley, killing over 10 people and injuring more than 35 others.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday the continued attacks and described them as "a deliberate hostile act aimed at undermining the diplomatic efforts ... to consolidate stability and halt Israeli hostilities against Lebanon." ■
