BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem said on Monday that an Israeli strike on the group's south Beirut stronghold the day before was an unjustified "aggression", months into a fragile ceasefire.

"Yesterday, an aggression targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut. This attack lacks any justification... It is a political attack aimed at changing the rules by force," Qassem said in a televised speech.

It was the third Israeli strike on south Beirut since the start of the November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war.

Israel said the strike had targeted a building used by Hezbollah to store "precision-guided missiles", and vowed to stop the Iran-backed militant group using Beirut's southern suburbs as a "safe haven".

The Israeli military had earlier issued a warning to civilians to evacuate the densely populated neighbourhood.

Following the attack, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on truce guarantors France and the United States to force Israel to halt its strikes.

In his speech on Monday, aired on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, Hezbollah chief Qassem said that the Lebanese national authorities must do more to ensure Israel abides by the terms of the ceasefire.

"The state must exert pressure. The pressure it has exerted so far... amounts to nothing more than some actions and statements. This is unacceptable," said Qassem, whose group emerged from the war with Israel bruised and weakened.

"We ask of the Lebanese state to take more action" and raise the issue at the United Nations Security Council, he added.

Qassem said that the United States has backed Israel's actions including the latest strike on Beirut, calling on the Lebanese government to put pressure on Washington "and make it understand that Lebanon will not rebuild without an end to the aggression".