Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc leader, MP Mohammad Raad, on Monday sharply criticized the Lebanese government’s decision to ban the group’s military activities and faulted its handling of ongoing Israeli strikes.

Raad said the government’s inability to confront Israel was understandable, describing the situation as one in which Lebanon faces “an aggressive Israeli enemy that violates national sovereignty, occupies land, and poses a continuous threat to the country’s security and stability.”

He acknowledged the government’s authority to decide matters of war and peace but underscored what he called its failure to enforce those decisions.

“We recognize the government’s right to determine questions of war and peace, as well as its inability to impose those decisions on an enemy that repeatedly violates national stability and continues its aggressive war against Lebanon and its people.”

Raad directed pointed criticism at Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his Cabinet, accusing them of taking unjustified measures against Lebanese citizens who oppose Israeli occupation.

“Given this clear incapacity and failure, we see no justification for Prime Minister Salam and his government to take swaggering decisions against Lebanese citizens who reject occupation and to accuse them of violating the ceasefire agreement, when the enemy itself has consistently ignored its obligations for a year and four months,” Raad said.

Raad also faulted the government for failing to mobilize international support to pressure Israel to halt its attacks.

“The Lebanese people were expecting a decision to prohibit aggression, but instead they were presented with a decision prohibiting the rejection of aggression," he said.

Framing Hezbollah’s actions as defensive, Raad said the group’s response to what he described as continued Israeli violations against “free and honorable people in Lebanon and the region” was meant to signal rejection of “a path of submission.” He dismissed what he called “the illusion that reconciling with the enemy and yielding to its conditions is the only way to achieve security and peace in Lebanon.”