Hezbollah Chief: "We Are Ready For A War Of Attrition" With Israel
Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem said during his second speech as secretary-general that the resistance group is in a "defensive state" and will thwart Israeli plans for Lebanon, vowing that nowhere in Israel is safe from missile and drone attacks.
"We have now reached an Israeli aggressive war on Lebanon that has been going on for a month and ten days. It is no longer important how the war started or what pretexts caused it. What is important is that we are facing an Israeli aggression," Qassem said. The Lebanese group is "now in a defensive state" and is confronting "this aggression and its expansionist goals," he added.
These goals include “ending Hezbollah’s presence,” while “the second step is to occupy Lebanon, even if from a distance – from the air, and by threatening, and making Lebanon similar to the West Bank,” referring to Tel Aviv’s ambition for unrestricted access to Lebanese territory and airspace. “The third is to [redraw] the map of the [region].”
“Netanyahu wanted these steps, and he started his war on Lebanon to accomplish the first step."
Qassem praised his fighters on the ground, confronting Israeli army incursions into south Lebanon, which began at the very start of last month and have since completely failed to achieve Tel Aviv’s goal of pushing away Hezbollah from the border and securing the return of settlers to its north.
He said Israel thought the pager terror attacks and the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah would “make it easier for him to invade Lebanon.”
“They brought five divisions to the border, consisting of 65,000 soldiers and officers … the Israeli army wanted to reach the Litani River but faced a firm resistance,” Qassem said, noting the failure of the ground operations. “We believe that only one thing can stop this aggressive war, which is the battlefield – both on the border and against the Israeli depth,” referring to daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks.
“There is no place in the Israeli entity that is off-limits to Hezbollah planes or missiles,” he warned. He added that Hezbollah’s capabilities are in good shape. “Our only choice is to prevent Israel from achieving its goals,” he added, noting that Hezbollah “cannot be defeated” as long as “justice” and “God” are on its side.
The Hezbollah chief also commented on the US election. He clarified that Hezbollah does not depend on regional or international politics, elections, or who will end up as president in the US, but rather depends only on the battlefield.
“We are not waiting on the American elections; whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump succeeds, they have no value to us… we do not rely on general political movements, and we do not rely on Netanyahu being satisfied with some gains, no, we will rely on the field, and we will make Netanyahu fully realize that he is a loser in the field and not a winner,” he said.
"We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants [who are ready to fight],” he affirmed, revealing that Hezbollah has not yet employed the entirety of its ground force.
He reiterated that any ceasefire talks must be based on stopping the war and respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty – something that Netanyahu has publicly stood against. He praised the “political resistance” of Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has rejected Israeli terms presented to Beirut by White House envoy Amos Hochstein.
“We will not beg for halting the aggression, and we will make the enemy ask for it … we are ready for a war of attrition no matter how long it lasts … Let [Israel] take its time.”
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching a salvo of advanced missiles at the Tzrifin Israeli military base, near Ben Gurion Airport. The attack coincides with the appointment of a new Israeli defense minister, the election of a new U.S. president, and 40 days since the… pic.twitter.com/ZozIAdSJFK
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) November 6, 2024
Qassem also commented on the recent Israeli landing operation and kidnapping in north Lebanon’s Batroun, in which commandos snatched Lebanese naval officer Imad Amhaz while he was attending a maritime training course.
“I demand that the Lebanese army, which is responsible for protecting the waters, issue a statement explaining the reason behind the Batroun operation.” The army must immediately “inform us of its stance on the incident,” he said, questioning the potential role of the UNIFIL force in Lebanon and its German naval contingent.
Qassem praised Nasrallah as the “pioneer” of Hezbollah’s “era of victories,” saying he “built a resistance … that unites all segments of society.” Nasrallah will “continue with us and we will continue with him, and the resistance will remain and grow and grow.”
The speech came hours after Hezbollah targeted a military base near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport with a barrage of missiles, causing damage in its vicinity and a temporary halt in air traffic.