Head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah has delivered his first public address since the deadly explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday across Lebanon.
Nasrallah said that Israel crossed all restrictions and red lines by carrying out the coordinated attacks.
He added that some of the attacks took place in hospitals, pharmacies, marketplaces, commercial shops and even residential homes, private vehicles and public roads where thousands of civilians, including women and children, are present.
“There were women and children and thousands were injured, different kinds of wounds,” he stated.
He offered his condolences to those who have fallen on the front in southern Lebanon and those who died as a result of the attacks in recent days and wishes speedy recoveries to those who have been injured.
He also thanked doctors, officials and everyone who helped in the treatment of victims of the attacks, including the people who donated blood.
“One of the silver linings of the crisis of the past few days is the solidarity and unity experienced across the country,” he pointed out.
Nasrallah asserted that the pager attacks were intended to “kill 4,000 people in one moment”.
“This was the intention of the enemy, and this is the scale of criminality. What can we call this kind of criminal action. Is it a big operation? Is it genocide? Is it a massacre?”
Hassan Nasrallah
Describing the attacks as “unprecedented” in Lebanon, he noted that Hezbollah has been dealt a “very hard” blow.
“We have received a very hard hit. But this is a state of a war,” he stated.
Nasrallah said investigation committees have been formed to study how the explosions happened, and that he will wait until he sees the assessments of those investigations. He says:
The Hezbollah Chief claimed that the attacks across Lebanon were targeted to undermine the group’s infrastructure and for the group to defy the leadership.
He said that the “Israeli enemy” had planned for the attacks to drive a wedge between the group and cause division.
Nonetheless, he disclosed that the top Hezbollah officials did not carry the model of the pagers that exploded.
“Our infrastructure has not been shaken,” he stressed, adding that instead it is “robust, mighty, coherent and cannot be shaken by such an attack”.
“Let the enemy know what happened did not shake our faith, conviction, resolve, preparedness or infrastructure. On the contrary, this turned us more resolved, more robust and more adamant. If the Israeli’s objective was to separate us from what’s taking place in Gaza, it failed.”
Hassan Nasrallah
Hezbollah To Continually Support Gaza
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah asserted that the group will not “abandon” their “fellow resistance fighters” in Gaza and the population in Gaza and West Bank.
Nasrallah said that the aim of the attacks in Lebanon this week were aimed to “bring Hezbollah to their knees” and to surrender.
Addressing Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he said that Hezbollah operations in southern Lebanon will not come to a halt until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
“I say it clearly: no matter what the consequences are, no matter what the sacrifices are, no matter what scenarios would unfold, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank and all the aggrieved in the occupied territories.”
Hassan Nasrallah
He aserted that the attacks this week targeting his group will be met with “just punishment.”
Nasrallah’s address also touched on Israeli officials’ pledges to return thousands of Israelis displaced by cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel’s army and Hezbollah to their houses.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” he said, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border”.
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