Hezbollah says 'ready' for all scenarios as Israel says prepared to shift to offense

A Lebanese lawmaker from Hezbollah’s political wing says the resistance movement is fully prepared for any possible scenario.

Mohammad Raad, head of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in the parliament, made the remarks in an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam television news channel broadcast on Tuesday evening.

He dismissed the Zionist regime’s threat of military action against Lebanon, stressing that such intimidation is simply meant to improve the Israeli forces’ morale amid the Gaza war.

“The Zionist entity knows that these threats are on object of ridicule among the parties that are well aware of its [military] … weaknesses. The enemy may opt to commit a folly against Lebanon, but such an action will be tantamount to its suicide,” Raad pointed out.

The senior Lebanese legislator added that Israel cannot restore its lost security, noting that its sole available option is to end its aggression against Gaza.

Hezbollah stands firmly committed to its solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing bloody military offensive against the Gaza Strip, he emphasized.

'Shift to offense' 

Meanwhile, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi claimed that the regime is prepared to “shift to offense” in its fighting with Hezbollah along the Lebanese border.

“We are approaching the point where a decision will have to be made, and the [Israeli army] is prepared and very ready for this decision,” Halevi said while touring an army base in Kiryat Shmona.

He said, “We have been attacking for eight months and Hezbollah is paying a very, very high price. It has increased its strengths in recent days and we are prepared after a very good process of training … to move to an attack in the North.”

“[We have] strong defense, readiness to attack, [and] we are approaching a decision point.”

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• Hezbollah says 'fully ready' to respond to Israel's expansion of aggression

Raad’s comments came on the same day that Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, warned the Israeli regime against expanding the scope of its aggression against Lebanon, asserting that the group is impervious to the regime’s threats and that the enemies are lined up in crosshairs.

The Hezbollah official said that the Israeli regime has during the past eight months refused to carry out its threat to expand the scope of the war on Lebanon, but the movement has prepared itself for such a scenario and is ready to give a strong response to such acts of aggression.

Sheikh Qassem said nothing can prevent Hezbollah’s operations in support of Gaza, and that the attacks will stop only when the fighting ceases completely in Gaza.  

The Israeli regime has repeatedly attacked southern Lebanon since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 36,550 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

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

At least 451 people have been killed on the Lebanese border, including more than 80 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. The resistance forced the regime to retreat in both conflicts.

'A strategic change'

Commenting on the large-scale surprise operation launched by Gaza-based resistance groups last October, Raad said on Tuesday that Operation Al-Aqsa Storm created a strategic change in the West Asia region, and targeted what was being promoted as normalization of diplomatic ties between Arab states and the Israeli regime.

“Operation Al-Aqsa Storm made the world realize that the Zionist regime has no deterrence capability, cannot protect itself, and that massive support is required in order to prop it up against the popular resistance front,” the Lebanese legislator noted.

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• Operation Al-Aqsa Storm put Israel on brink of extinction: Nasrallah

Raad stressed that Operation Al-Aqsa Storm thwarted the Western conspiracy, which sought realization of Israel’s interests through normalization of diplomatic relations with regional countries.

“The liability for the Zionist regime’s atrocities and abusive actions in Gaza lies with the West … The Zionist enemy is currently facing a very daunting challenge ... It continues to draw on the breathing space created by Americans in order to raze Gaza and present an image to the countries that want normalization of ties with the regime that it can protect them,” he said.

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