By Emma Farge and Laila Bassam
GENEVA/BEIRUT, (Reuters) -Hezbollah's deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Tuesday the Iran-backed group would inflict "pain" on Israel but he also called for a ceasefire as a conflict rages between them in south Lebanon.
Israel has been turning up the heat on Hezbollah since it began incursions into the region after killing Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including its veteran secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah last month in the biggest blow to the group in decades.
"The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness, if the Israelis do not want that, we will continue," Qassem said in a recorded speech.
"But after the ceasefire, according to an indirect agreement, the settlers would return to the north and other steps will be drawn up."
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which says its operation in Lebanon aims to secure the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee their homes in northern Israel because of Hezbollah attacks.
Qassem said Hezbollah reserved the right to attack anywhere in Israel because its enemy has done the same in Lebanon. He said more Israelis will be displaced and "hundreds of thousands, even more than two million, will be in danger at any time, at any hour, on any day".
"We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centers and barracks," he said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to attack Hezbollah "without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut".
Israel has issued military evacuation orders affecting more than a quarter of Lebanon, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday, two weeks after the Israeli military began incursions into south Lebanon to battle Hezbollah.
The figures underscore the heavy price Lebanese are paying as Israel tries to defeat the Iran-backed militant group and destroy its infrastructure in their one-year-old conflict.
The U.N. refugee agency's Middle East director, Rema Jamous Imseis, said new Israeli evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon meant that over a quarter of the country was now affected.
"People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they're fleeing with almost nothing," she told a briefing in Geneva.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,309 people over the last year, the Lebanese government said, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The majority have been killed since late September when Israel expanded its military campaign. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Around 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed, according to Israel.
Israel expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 22 people in an airstrike in the north on a house where displaced people were seeking refuge from Israeli strikes further south, health officials said.
"What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said of Monday's strike on Christian-majority Aitou.
He called for an investigation into the strike which he said has raised concerns with respect to "the laws of war".
Rescue workers were still pulling bodies out of the rubble in Aitou on Tuesday, local media reported. Israel has not commented on the Aitou strike, but says it takes all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
CONCERN AT ATTACKS ON PEACEKEEPERS
The main focus of Israel's military operations in Lebanon has been in the Bekaa Valley in the east, the suburbs of Beirut and in the south, where U.N. peacekeepers say Israeli fire has hit their bases on numerous occasions and wounded peacekeepers.
Israel's military said about 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory after sirens sounded in the Haifa Bay and Upper Galilee areas, and that some were intercepted.
The mass displacement in Lebanon during Israel's military campaign has revived the spectre of sectarian strife.
Lebanon's population consists of more than a dozen religious sects, with political representation divided along sectarian lines. Religious divisions fuelled the ferocity of a 1975-1990 civil war that killed some 150,000 people and drew in neighbouring states.
The U.S. has stood by Israel in its conflicts despite concerns over civilian casualties. The Pentagon said components for an advanced anti-missile system began arriving in Israel on Monday and that it would be fully operational in the near future, according to a statement on Tuesday.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict resumed a year ago when the militant group began firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.
The Middle East, meanwhile, remains on alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an Oct. 1 barrage of missiles launched in response to Israel's assaults on Lebanon.
(Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, Clauda Tanios in Dubai and Rami Ayyub and Susan Heavey in Washington and James MacKenzie in Jerusalam; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Stephen Coates, Sharon Singleton and Timothy Heritage)
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