In a third speech since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah justified on Wednesday the “raison d’etre” of his armed wing, claiming that the existence of a strong “resistance” deterred Israel from attacking Lebanon.
He stressed, however, that Hezbollah’s engagement against Israel in South Lebanon is still being conducted according to precise calculations, suggesting that the party is still trying to avoid a grave escalation that might lead to a full-fledged confrontation.
He warned, however, that if Israel wages war against Lebanon, “Our fight will have no limits and no rules.”
“We’re not afraid of war. Those who think of going to war with us will regret it. We are more ready than ever, and if war is waged against Lebanon, it will be in Lebanon’s interest to fight it to the bitter end, without restraint,” Nasrallah added.
Hezbollah opened its so-called “support front” for Gaza on October 8, a day after Hamas’s attack on Israel, “to show support” for Gazans and alleviate Israel’s military pressure on the enclave.
Nasrallah’s address, meant to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Revolutionary Guard general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq, came 24 hours after Hamas’s second-in-command, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an attack on Beirut’s southern suburb, in the heart of the Hezbollah stronghold.
The Shiite leader vowed that yesterday’s crime, which he described as “a blatant aggression” by Israel, “will not go unpunished.”
Arouri, the most senior Hamas commander killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, was slain with six other Hamas officials in an Israeli drone attack in the heart of Hezbollah’s stronghold. He was a co-founder of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist movement, and one of Israel’s priority targets.
Nasrallah also listed what he called the “achievements and outcomes” of three months of fighting since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. He claims these achievements and outcomes include the revival of the Palestinian question, which had been forgotten, affirming that Israel has failed to exhaust the Palestinians. Added to that is the growing popularity of Hamas among the Palestinian population, the tarnished Israeli image worldwide, the shift in American public opinion in favor of the Palestinians and the Israeli population’s loss of confidence in its army and security services.
