Hezbollah’s acting leader yesterday vowed to keep battling Israel and said the Lebanese militant group was prepared for a long fight even after much of its top command was wiped out, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli strikes have killed Nasrallah and six of his top commanders and officials in the past 10 days, and have hit what the military says are thousands of militant targets across large parts of Lebanon. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the country in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
Early yesterday, an airstrike hit a residential building in central Beirut, wiping out one apartment, damaging others, and killing three Palestinian militants, as Israel appeared to send a clear message that no part of Lebanon is out of bounds.
Photo: AP
Despite the heavy blow Hezbollah has suffered in recent weeks, acting leader Naim Kassem said in a televised statement that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, the group’s fighters are ready.
He said the commanders killed have already been replaced.
“Israel was not able to affect our [military] capabilities,” Kassem said in a televised statement, the first time any senior Hezbollah figure has been seen since Nasrallah was killed. “There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”
He added that Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a stalemate in their monthlong war in 2006, anticipated “the battle could be long.”
A founding member of the militant group who had been Nasrallah’s longtime deputy, Kassem is to remain in his acting position until the group’s leadership elects a replacement. The man widely expected to take over the top post is Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs.
Hezbollah’s capabilities are unclear after a series of major blows.
Hezbollah has significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week to several hundred daily, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. Several people have been wounded in Israel. There have been no fatalities since two soldiers were killed near the border on Sept. 19.
Also yesterday, Hamas announced that its top commander in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed with his family in an airstrike on the al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre. The Israeli military confirmed that it had targeted him.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Sharif was an employee, and was put on administrative leave without pay in March, as it investigated allegations about his political activities. Israel has accused the agency, known as UNRWA, of links to Palestinian militant groups, while the agency says it is committed to neutrality and works to prevent any such infiltration.
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