Do not underestimate Hezbollah’s ability to harm Israel: Senior official

A high-ranking official of Lebanon's Hezbollah has underscored the resistance movement’s great defense capabilities, warning the Israeli regime against underestimating its power to harm the occupying entity.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, made the statement in an interview with Lebanon's Arabic-language al-Manar television channel on Friday while commenting on the latest regional developments and the combat readiness of Axis of Resistance.

“Hezbollah does not want war, but if the Israeli enemy decides to expand the confrontation and wage war, we are ready for it,” Qassem said.

“As data show the enemy is unable and has no interest in war, and we do not see an interest in a wide war,” He added. “What we did in the south is called a preemptive defense with the aim of supporting Gaza, protecting Lebanon, and deterring Israel.”

Raising the alarm about any Israeli underestimation of Hezbollah’s capabilities, the official said the Lebanese resistance movement’s confrontation with the regime in the country’s south is just part of Hezbollah’s power.

“Do not underestimate Hezbollah’s ability to harm Israel,” Qassem said, stressing that, “What the resistance used on the front in the south is part of its weapons’ power and what is hidden is greater. The enemy must understand that if he hurts us more, he must suffer more.”

Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general underlined that any Lebanese support for Gaza, in addition to being in Gaza’s interest, is also in Lebanon’s interest as Beirut’s support for Gaza “follows two goals; the first is to support Palestine, and the second is to deter the enemy.”

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Qassem pointed to Israel’s months-long aggression on the Gaza Strip and said the Palestinian resistance was “victorious” as it prevented the illegal entity from achieving its goals in the besieged territory.

“After seven months, even if it takes a longer time, the resistance is victorious and the mighty struggling Palestinian people are impossible to defeat,” he said.

“The Palestinian resistance won because it prevented the Israeli enemy from achieving its goals of crushing the resistance and liberating the detainees.”

Stressing that the Axis of Resistance fully supports the Palestinian cause, the deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah said, “US pressure on Israel is still soft, and the Americans are hypocritical and not serious about ending the war [in Gaza].”

Qassem also commended Iran’s Operation True Promise against the occupied territories last month, which were carried out in retaliation for the regime’s earlier aggression on the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic premises in Syria.

“The Iranian strike on the Zionist entity is a practical declaration that Iran cannot remain silent when it is attacked,” he added.

The Israeli regime has repeatedly attacked southern Lebanon since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on Gaza that has so far killed at least 34,622 people, most of them women and children, and left over 77,700 Palestinians injured.

In retaliation, Hezbollah has launched near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions.

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