Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Saturday rejected a U.S.-brokered security agreement between Lebanon and Israel, denouncing the deal as a capitulation to Israel. The accord was signed on Friday, and Qassem issued his strong rebuke the following day.

Despite multiple previous ceasefire efforts, hostilities have persisted. Israel carried out a drone strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday. More than one million Lebanese have been displaced by the conflict, which has unfolded alongside the broader war with Iran. Hezbollah and Iran have maintained that Washington, in the memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago to end the wider war, had pledged to halt hostilities in Lebanon.

The framework agreement reached on Friday stipulates a phased Israeli withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon, with the Lebanese army deploying in those areas.

However, Israeli forces would be permitted to remain temporarily in an expanded security zone pending further implementation. In his statement, Qassem declared the agreement “invalid” and accused the Lebanese government of making unilateral concessions that undermined Lebanese sovereignty. He criticized provisions that linked Israeli withdrawal to Hezbollah’s disarmament, arguing that the terms effectively legitimized Israel’s military presence and crossed “all red lines.”

He added that the group would continue armed resistance, stating: “We did not leave the battlefield under the most difficult conditions, and we will not leave it now.”

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone struck the Nabatieh Al-Fawqa area on Saturday. The location falls outside the security zone shown on Israeli maps where its forces would continue to operate. The Israeli military told Reuters it had carried out the strike, using a drone because no ground forces were in the vicinity. The military said the target was an individual posing a threat to its troops, though it provided no further details or evidence.

Qassem said that the Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding reached earlier this month guaranteed Lebanon’s territorial integrity and should serve as the basis for ending the conflict, rather than Friday’s Washington-brokered agreement.