Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem. (Credit: NNA)
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem warned on Saturday that "an extension of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon will lead to a broader response." His comments come as fighting between the Shiite party and the Israeli army, which began in the aftermath of the Hamas offensive in Gaza, has recently intensified and deepened.
"Hezbollah has decided to respond to Israeli aggression proportionally: any widening of aggression will lead to a widening of Hezbollah's response and of the resistance in Lebanon," warned the party's No. 2 during a social ceremony in Beirut, adding that this "decision is firm."
"When Israel attacked one of our brothers in the Sarafand region, we responded on Tuesday with a three-drone attack targeting the Golani brigade headquarters and the Egoz unit headquarters in the Chraga barracks, north of the city of Acre," Qassem noted, before continuing, "According to Israeli army radio, 200,000 Israelis are holed up in shelters in the north because of three drones alone. Imagine what the results would be if Israel crossed the border any further."
Qassem went on to claim that Hezbollah's support for Gaza from Lebanon had "hampered Israel's war plans in Palestine and Lebanon."
"Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has indicated that his main objective is to bring the northerners back to their homes, and that the coming period will be decisive," he added. Kassem continued, "It is not possible for these inhabitants to return to their homes in a time of war."
Hezbollah suicide drones
For his part, Nabil Kaouk, a member of Hezbollah's central council, also praised the pro-Iranian party's military capabilities on Saturday. "The fact that the resistance's suicide drones have reached Acre, Beit Helal and Arab al-Aramshe proves their ability to bypass all Israeli air defense systems," he said at a tribute in southern Lebanon to a party fighter who "died on the road to Jerusalem."
According to him, these suicide drones have been "96 percent" successful in slipping through the cracks of the Israeli defense system and "are able to get to where the resistance wants them to."
Kaouk also assured that Hezbollah "responds on the ground to any aggression against civilians in a strong and swift manner," and reiterated his party's position that any halt to fighting on the "axis of resistance" in Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen is conditional on an end to hostilities in Gaza.