{"id":75993,"date":"2026-04-21T09:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/75993\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:13:07","slug":"katz-threatens-hezbollahs-naim-qassem-ahead-of-lebanon-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/75993\/","title":{"rendered":"Katz threatens Hezbollah&#8217;s Naim Qassem ahead of Lebanon talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            2026-04-21T08:52:18+00:00<\/p>\n<p>                                    font<\/p>\n<p>                                            Enable Reading Mode<\/p>\n<p>\n                                        A-<br \/>\n                                        A<br \/>\n                                        A+\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>Shafaq News- Middle East<\/p>\n<p>Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Tuesday that Hezbollah<br \/>\nSecretary-General Naim Qassem would &#8220;pay with his head,&#8221; vowing to<br \/>\ndismantle the group, as a second round of Lebanon-Israel negotiations is set to<br \/>\nopen in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a state memorial ceremony in Jerusalem, Katz said Israeli<br \/>\nforces are currently deployed in Lebanon in a security zone extending up to 10<br \/>\nkilometers from the Lebanese border, from the Mediterranean coast to the<br \/>\nfoothills of Mount Hermon, and are working to prevent cross-border raids,<br \/>\nanti-tank fire, and \u201cterrorist infrastructure.\u201d He added that the area up to<br \/>\nthe Litani River must be fully demilitarized.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The overarching goal of the campaign in Lebanon is to disarm<br \/>\nHezbollah and remove the threat to northern communities, through a combination<br \/>\nof military and diplomatic measures,&#8221; Katz said, adding that Prime<br \/>\nMinister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the military to continue operating<br \/>\n&#8220;with full force, on land and in the air,&#8221; including during the<br \/>\nceasefire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shafaq.com\/en\/Report\/Ceasefire-without-sovereignty-how-Lebanon-s-fragmented-power-blocks-a-peace-with-Israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Read more: Ceasefire without sovereignty: how Lebanon&#8217;s fragmented power blocks a peace with Israel<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The United States <a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/Middle-East\/US-to-host-second-round-of-Lebanon-Israel-talks-on-April-23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">prepares<\/a> to host a second round of ambassador-level<br \/>\ntalks between Lebanon and Israel on April 23. Washington described the initial<br \/>\nengagement, held on April 14, as &#8220;productive&#8221; \u2014the first such contact<br \/>\nbetween the two sides since 1993. <\/p>\n<p>Lebanon has appointed a delegation led by former ambassador to the<br \/>\nUnited States Simon Karam, tasked with pursuing an end to hostilities,<br \/>\naddressing Israeli occupation, and enabling deployment of the Lebanese army<br \/>\nalong the southern border.<\/p>\n<p>The negotiations are taking place under a US-brokered ceasefire that<br \/>\ncame into effect on April 17 for an initial 10-day period, with the option of<br \/>\nextension by mutual agreement. Under its terms, Beirut is required to prevent<br \/>\nattacks against Israel and ensure that official security forces are the sole<br \/>\nauthority responsible for security, while Israel retains the right to act in<br \/>\nself-defense.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ceasefire, Lebanese media reported<br \/>\ncontinued Israeli activity in southern Lebanon, including detonations in<br \/>\nal-Qussair, Deir Seryan, al-Taybeh, and Shamaa, as well as a drone strike near<br \/>\nthe Litani River close to Qaquaiyet al-Jisr.<\/p>\n<p>Since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, Israeli<br \/>\nstrikes have killed 2,294 people and injured 7,544 others, including 177<br \/>\nchildren and 274 women among the dead, according to Lebanon&#8217;s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-04-21T08:52:18+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Middle East Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[152,100,37,17485,27724,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-75993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-breaking","9":"tag-hezbollah","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-katz","12":"tag-katz-threatens-hezbollahs-naim-qassem-ahead-of-lebanon-talks","13":"tag-lebanon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116441933885553517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}