Israeli Airstrikes: Hezbollah Promises to Fight Back Harder Than Ever! 

People inspect the damage at the site of Sunday's Israeli attack on the city of Ain Deleb. Credit | Reuters
People inspect the damage at the site of Sunday's Israeli attack on the city of Ain Deleb. Credit | Reuters

United States: Hezbollah fighters are ready to ward off any Israeli ground attack on Lebanon, said Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy commander, in his first interview since the Israeli air raids that claimed its veteran chief Hassan Nasrallah last week. 

More about the news 

Qassem mentioned that Israel would not achieve its goal. 

He said, “We will face any possibility, and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” Reuters reported. 

What more, he stated? 

He was speaking as Israeli airstrikes on targets in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon this week as part of a two-week campaign that has claimed the lives of several Hezbollah commanders but also killed roughly one thousand Lebanese citizens and displaced one million people, according to the Lebanese government. 

Nasrallah’s assassination, plus the string of attacks on the organization’s communication networks and the killing of other senior operatives, are among the most severe setbacks the organization has faced since its formation by Iran in 1982 to confront Israel. 

Challenges faced by Hezbollah 

As per the Reuters reports, Nasrallah had developed Hezbollah into the most influential military and political organization in Lebanese and influential organization in the Middle East. 

Now Hezbollah has the task of finding a replacement for a towering figure who was a hero to millions of its supporters because he dared defy Israel even if the West painted him as a terrorist mastermind. 

Qassem said, “We will choose a secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity…and we will fill the leadership and positions on a permanent basis,” Reuters reported. 

Police officers work at the site of an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Kola. Credit | Reuters
Police officers work at the site of an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Kola. Credit | Reuters

“What we are doing is the bare minimum…We know that the battle may be long,” he added, and “We will win as we won in the liberation of 2006 in the face of the Israeli enemy,” he added, referring to the last big conflict between the two foes. 

Attacks from multiple fronts 

Recent events suggest that there is no willingness in Israel to cease aggression even after wiping out Nasrallah, Iran’s valuable ally in a highly valued “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the US in the Middle East. 

As Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated, Tehran is not going to stay neutral to any of Israel’s “criminal acts.” 

Russia said that Nasrallah’s death has caused a severe destabilization in the larger Middle East region. Friend and neighbor, the United States has been particularly supportive of Israel even as it raises alarm at high civilian deaths.