BEIRUT, Lebanon, July  10, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan
Nasrallah said Wednesday his group would accept Palestinian ally Hamas's
decision on Gaza truce negotiations, repeating that his movement would stop
cross-border attacks on Israel if a ceasefire were reached.

Hezbollah has traded almost daily fire with Israeli forces in support of
Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel
triggered war in the Gaza Strip, stoking fears of a full-blown conflict.

"Hamas is negotiating... on behalf of the whole axis of resistance,"
Nasrallah said, referring to regional pro-Iran groups opposed to Israel and the
United States.

"Whatever Hamas accepts, everyone accepts and is satisfied with," he said,
adding: "We do not ask (Hamas) to coordinate with us because the battle in the
first instance is theirs."

Nasrallah's remarks came days after he met with a Hamas delegation headed
by foreign relations chief Khalil al-Hayya, and as talks were to resume in
Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza war, now grinding
into its 10th month.

Hamas has signalled that it would drop its insistence on a "complete"
ceasefire -- which Israel has repeatedly rejected -- as a condition for
starting truce talks.

Nasrallah repeated his position that "if a ceasefire is reached, and we all
hope for that... our front will cease fire without any discussion".

"That is a commitment, because it is a support front and we have been clear
(about this) from the start," he said, during a televised address commemorating
a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike last week.

However, Nasrallah warned that "we will never allow any attack that the
Israeli enemy might carry out against Lebanon (even) if there is a ceasefire in
Gaza".

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday that "we will continue
fighting and doing everything necessary to bring about the desired result" in
the campaign against Hezbollah, "even if there is a ceasefire" in the Gaza
Strip.

In Lebanon, the cross-border violence since October has killed nearly 500
people, mostly fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP
tally.

On the Israeli side, at least 29 people have been killed, the majority of
them soldiers, according to the authorities.

Nasrallah said Israeli demands to push Hezbollah back from the border
"won't fix" the situation for Israel.

His group's launching of "hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones in a
single day" towards Israeli targets was a message "that Hezbollah doesn't fear
war", he added.