Hezbollah MP reveals three things needed for lasting ceasefire with Israel

Despite ongoing negotiations, the US-brokered, month-old ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel has failed to halt fighting between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia Muslim armed group.

Over the course of roughly a month, UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon - alongside Lebanese authorities - have documented more than 5,700 Israeli ceasefire violations by land, sea and air, including nearly 2,400 aerial strikes carried out by warplanes and drones.

According to Lebanon's ministry of public health, the total number of fatalities since early March has passed 3,000 people, including children and medical workers.

Meanwhile, 21 Israeli soldiers have died in southern Lebanon since the war resumed on 2 March against Hezbollah, which is proscribed as a terrorist group by the British and US governments.

As talks between Israel and Lebanese officials in Washington continue, we had the rare opportunity to question senior Hezbollah MP Dr Hussein al Hajj Hassan about the war, the negotiations, and how the group plans to resolve the conflict.

He insisted that Hezbollah is not fighting for war itself, but for what he called "a peace with dignity and independence".

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In his view, the ceasefire that followed the 2024 war was not real peace at all, but a period still marked by Israeli strikes, assassinations and constant violations.

When the topic shifted to direct negotiations, the MP leaned heavily on history. Previous wars between Lebanon and Israel, he argued, ended through ceasefire agreements and indirect channels without leaders sitting face to face.

Then came the comparison that instantly changed the tone in the room: "Imagine Churchill going to shake hands with Hitler during the war. What would the British people think of that?"

So what, in Hezbollah's view, would it take to reach a ceasefire and eventually peace? First, he said, Israel must stop its attacks on Lebanon. Second, Israeli forces must fully withdraw from Lebanese territory.

Third, Lebanese prisoners must be released, and eventually people must be able to return safely to their villages and rebuild their lives. Only then, he argued, could indirect negotiations begin.

"We don't negotiate under fire," he told us. "That's not negotiation. That's humiliation."

(c) Sky News 2026: Hezbollah MP reveals three things needed for lasting ceasefire with Israel