It was the most anticipated speech from Hezbollah's leader in nearly a year of war. Hasan Nasrallah was not scheduled to speak for three weeks, on the first anniversary of the Gaza war and the opening of the “support front” in Lebanon, but he finally did so on Thursday, with a serious tone and with the world watching his words, after the hardest blow to the party's militia in its four-decade history: the massive double detonation at a distance of about 5,000 pagers And walkie talkies that I had ordered months ago. After the vulnerability demonstrated by the hacking of his communication methods, whose authorship (Israel) is practically beyond doubt, Nasrallah promised reprisals that will only be known “when they are seen.”
“Let me change my method: I will not talk about the time and place of the response. Of course, the punishment will come. When, where, how? They will know when the time comes. We will not talk about it. “We are in the most precise, most sensitive and deepest part of the confrontation,” he said. The moment is so sensitive 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 the response that Nasrallah would promise to more than 30 dead and thousands injured that the attack attributed to Mossad, Israel's foreign secret service, has disappeared, but also in the way he would respond to the drums of open war that his prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, strikes with unprecedented intensity in recent days. As he was speaking, in fact, Israeli warplanes rattled the windows of Beirut, breaking the sound barrier in the sky. It has become an almost daily habit in the south of the country to intimidate the population, and this is not the first speech Nasrallah has made in which he has done so. A few minutes before the speech, the Israeli army had also announced attacks on Hezbollah targets.
Challenge to Netanyahu
Nasrallah challenged Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (whom he has often mentioned) to invade southern Lebanon, as Israel did between 1982 and 2000, first responding to Hezbollah and eventually withdrawing amid massive protests in Tel Aviv over the daily deaths of its soldiers on the front lines. “If for them it is a threat, for us it is an opportunity.” “Some of yesterday’s wounded are more determined to fight,” he warned, before reiterating a message that a new invasion will not achieve its stated goal of bringing people home. the more than 60,000 evacuees from northern Israel.
“You will not be able to send back the settlers from northern Palestine [los israelíes evacuados del norte del país] to their settlements. You can do whatever you want. The only way for them to come back is to stop the offensive in Gaza and, of course, in the West Bank. No killings or attacks will be possible. The opposite. What is going to happen will reduce the chances of their return. “That is our commitment,” he said.
Knowing what's happening outside means understanding what's going to happen inside, not missing anything.
Nasrallah has admitted twice that the dual technological attack has resulted in a “great success” which will be investigated. And it shows the “technological capabilities of the enemy,” thanks to the support it receives from the West. But he insisted that he had not “shaken” the organization.
The leader accused Israel of having attempted assassination of at least 5,000 people with a phantom attack that “violates all 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, both expected and unexpected. […] “I want to reassure those who ask: we are very prepared. What happened will not affect our power and our preparation. It will only increase our determination,” he assured.
Missed goals
Israel had, he claims, two goals with its attack and failed in both. One was to “decouple” the Lebanese front from the Gaza front. In other words, Hezbollah is ending the attacks that began 24 hours after October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas attack and the first Israeli bombings on Gaza. “This will not happen. No matter the sacrifices or what happens next, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the people of Gaza. “Hezbollah will not abandon the people of Gaza to their fate,” he said.
The other was to get what he defined as the party's “environment” of militias to rebel, asking him to spare them more bloodshed or open war against such a superior and capable enemy. “They have also failed,” he replied rhetorically in a speech filled with calls for national unity across religious divides. The key idea is that the attack on pagers and the walkie talkies This is not only against Hezbollah, but against Lebanon as a country. He recalled the deaths of civilians close to the aircraft and welcomed the blood and organ donations made by Shiites as well as Sunnis, Christians and Druze.
The speech came a day after Gallant announced the imminent deployment of additional troops to the Israeli-Lebanese border. “The center of gravity is shifting north. We are diverting forces, resources and energy north,” he said. Gallant also hinted at the start of a “new phase of the war.” On Thursday, the army planned to conduct maneuvers near the Mediterranean city of Haifa, the country's third largest and about 30 kilometers from Lebanese territory.
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