It was the most anticipated speech by the leader of Hezbollah in almost a year of war. Hassan Nasrallah was not scheduled to speak until three weeks from now, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war in Gaza and the opening of the “support front” in Lebanon, but he did so on Thursday, in a serious tone and with the world hanging on his words, after the biggest blow to the party-militia in its four-decade history: the double remote mass detonation of the approximately 5,000 search and rescue vehicles. walkie-talkies which he had ordered months ago. After the vulnerability shown by the hacking of his communication methods, about whose authorship (Israel) there is little doubt, Nasrallah has promised a retaliation that will only be known “when it is seen.”
“Let me change my method: I will not speak about the time or the place of the response. Of course the punishment will come. When, where, how? You will know when the time comes. We will not speak about that. We are in the most precise, sensitive and deep part of the confrontation,” he said. So sensitive is the moment that the speech was televised from an unspecified location, as usual, but without the usual giant-screen event that the Lebanese party-militia usually organizes in Dahiye, Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut.
The focus was not only on what response Nasrallah would promise to the more than 30 dead and thousands wounded in the attack attributed to the Mossad, Israel’s secret services abroad, but also on how he would respond to the drums of open war that his Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been beating with unprecedented intensity in recent days. While he was speaking, in fact, Israeli fighter planes shook the windows in Beirut, breaking the sound barrier over its skies. It has become an almost daily routine in the south of the country, to intimidate the population, and it is not the first speech by Nasrallah in which they have done so. Minutes before the intervention, in addition, the Israeli army announced attacks on Hezbollah targets.
I challenge Natanyahu
Nasrallah has challenged Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (whom he has mentioned frequently) to invade southern Lebanon, as Israel did between 1982 and 2000, giving birth to Hezbollah as a response and eventually retreating amid mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv over the daily deaths of soldiers on the front. “If for them it is a threat, for us it is an opportunity. Some of those wounded yesterday are more determined to fight,” he warned, before reiterating a message: a new invasion will not achieve its stated objective, which is to return to their homes the more than 60,000 evacuees from northern Israel.
“You will not be able to return the settlers from northern Palestine (Israelis evacuated from the north of the country) to their settlements. You can do whatever you want. The only way to get them back is to stop the offensive in Gaza and, of course, in the West Bank. No assassination or attack will be able to do that. On the contrary. What will come will reduce the chances of them returning. That is our commitment,” he said.
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Nasrallah has admitted, on two occasions, that the double technological attack has been a “major blow” that will be investigated. And that it shows the “technological capacity of the enemy”, thanks to the support it receives from the West. But he has insisted that it has not “shaken” the organization.
The leader accused Israel of trying to kill at least 5,000 people with a shadow attack that “violates all the rules of engagement” and “can be considered a declaration of war.” “Yesterday, Netanyahu and Gallant were happy. It was a challenge. […] But the punishment will be great, in expected and unexpected ways. […] “I want to reassure those who ask: we are very prepared. What has happened will not affect our power and preparation. It will only increase our determination,” he said.
Failed objectives
Israel had, he argued, two objectives with its attack and failed in both. One was to “decouple” the Lebanese front from the Gazan front. That is, to have Hezbollah cease the attacks that began 24 hours after October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas attack and the first Israeli bombings on Gaza. “It will not happen. Whatever the sacrifices or whatever happens next, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the people of Gaza. Hezbollah will not leave the people of Gaza to their fate,” he said.
The other was to get what he has called the “environment” of the party-militia to revolt, asking them to spare them further bloodshed or open war against such a superior and capable enemy. “They have also failed,” he responded rhetorically in a speech riddled with calls for national unity across religious divides. The key idea is that the attack by the Buscadores and the walkie-talkies It was not just against Hezbollah, but against Lebanon as a country. It has in fact recalled the deaths of civilians who were close to the devices and thanked the donations of blood and organs made by Shiites and Sunnis, Christians and Druze.
The speech comes a day after Gallant announced the imminent deployment of more troops to Israel’s border with Lebanon. “The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources and energy north,” he said. Gallant also alluded to the beginning of a “new phase of the war.” On Thursday, the army was scheduled to carry out maneuvers near the Mediterranean city of Haifa, the country’s third largest and about 30 kilometers from Lebanese territory.
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