Nasrallah Warns Arab Israelis in Haifa to Leave Their Homes
Source:
Haaretz
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa so his guerrilla organization could step up attacks without fear of shedding the blood of fellow Muslims.
Hezbollah Leader, Hassan Nasrallah
"I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood."

In a televised speech, Nasrallah said Israeli attacks had not weakened Hezbollah's rocket capabilities, and warned that his fighters would turn south Lebanon into a "graveyard" for invading Israel Defense Forces troops.

"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out," said Nasrallah in a recorded speech shown on Hezbollah's television station.

"We will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists."

In his first comments since the U.S.-French draft cease-fire resolution was unveiled on Sunday, Nasrallah gave a deeply negative assessment of the plan, calling it "unfair and unjust."

"The least we can describe this [draft resolution] is as unfair and unjust. It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for," he said in a speech televised on all local and regional television networks.

In a major shift in the Hezbollah position, Nasrallah also said the militant organization was solidly behind a Lebanese government plan to deploy 15,000 soldiers in south Lebanon once a cease-fire is reached and Israel pulls out its forces.

"In the past we used to oppose or not agree on deployment of the army at the borders ... because we were concerned about the army. ... We agree on deployment of the army, but do note hide our fear for it," Nasrallah said.

"The army could be destroyed within few days," he said.

Nasrallah also rejected a proposed international peacekeeping force for the region, saying it was not clear from whom they would be taking orders.

"This [the Lebanese army deployment] is the better and more convenient alternative than deployment of international troops. We don't know whose orders they will be taking," he said.

Nasrallah also urged the Lebanese government against succumbing the what he termed U.S. pressure to drop its opposition to the plan currently under consideration at the United Nations.

"I call out against American pressure," Nasrallah said. "I all on the [ebanese]government for continued teadfastness."

He said the guerrillas would not falter, adding his guerillas "will keep fighting to the last shot," he said.

"On the battlefield, we remain steadfast and that in itself is a victory for the resistance, and defeat for the enemy," he said.

At least 25 IDF troops were reported wounded on Wednesday, as Prime Mininster Ehud Olmert's security cabinte voted to expand its ground operation in Lebanon to wipe out Hezbollah's short-range rocket capabilities.
Also see: The Israel Lebanon War
              
Hezbollah Kills 2 Israeli Arab Children
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