Hezbollah supporters wave Hezbollah's and the Lebanese flags in the southern suburbs of Beirut, during a speech by party leader Hassan Nasrallah on the occasion of World Al-Quds Day, April 14, 2023 . (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — A week after Israel launched retaliatory strikes on South Lebanon following a barrage of rockets fired across Lebanon's southern border, Hezbollah's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, said Friday no infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah or Hamas was hit by Israeli strikes, denouncing "lies" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Nasrallah refrained in his last speech, on April 7, from commenting on the recent flareup between Lebanon and Israel, which increased border tensions to a level not seen since the 34-day war of 2006.
Hezbollah's leader made his remarks in a speech Friday on the occasion of the Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), decreed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1979 to his death in 1989, and celebrated every year on the last Friday of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
"Netanyahu has told lies," Nasrallah said. "The biggest lie was when he said that Israel bombed Hezbollah and Hamas infrastructure in southern Lebanon. All the media went to the site of the strikes, which turned out to be banana fields and irrigation. No infrastructure of Hezbollah or Hamas was hit."
On April 6, dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. These rocket attacks came a day after Israeli police violently stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque — Islam's third holiest site — in Jerusalem to dislodge Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside.
Israel responded to the rocket attacks at dawn on April 7 by striking South Lebanon. Israel also launch attacks on the Gaza Strip the same morning, also in response rocket fire from the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Israel has blamed the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for the incident on the Lebanese border, although to date no group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Hamas's political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Beirut at the time.
On April 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured that he would not "allow the terrorist Hamas to establish itself in Lebanon" and promised to "restore security" in his country by acting "on all fronts."
Many observers believe that rocket launches from Lebanon could not have taken place without Hezbollah's endorsement. The Shiite group is omnipresent in South Lebanon, and its leaders have recently been advocated "unity of fronts" in their speeches.
On April 9, Hezbollah issued a statement saying that Nasrallah and Haniyeh had discussed the "state of readiness of the axis of resistance" against Israel.
Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement and Christian ally of Hezbollah, criticized this "unity of the fronts" in a speech on April 13.