Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of their militant commander Fuad Shukr was delayed for several reasons, one of which was the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.
“Hezbollah was ready to retaliate after the assassination of Fuad Shukr, but we understood that Israel and its ally the United States were prepared for our response at that time, any haste in such cases would mean failure. In addition, we wanted to give the Gaza negotiations a chance,” Nasrallah was quoted as saying by Al Manar TV and Tass news agency.
According to Nasrallah, delaying retaliation is not in Lebanon’s interest but it has a negative impact on Israel and its economy. He noted that on August 25, Hezbollah decided to act separately from its other allies and followed its own considerations, which will be revealed later. Other members of the so-called Axis of Resistance, including Iran, Palestinian factions and Yemen’s Ansar Allas (Houthi) movement, will decide independently how to respond to Israel.
The situation in the Middle East has once again escalated as Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in an attempt to prevent their potential missile attacks on Israeli territory.
Hezbollah militant group leader Hassan Nasrallah. Photo: Israel National News
However, Hezbollah said it had launched more than 320 rockets into Israel and called the attack an initial response to the killing of commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. The Lebanese militant group later said the first phase of the campaign had ended.
The group attacked the Glilot military base, about 1.5km from Tel Aviv, Hassan Nasrallah said. “When planning our retaliation, we decided not to target civilian and civilian facilities but military targets near Tel Aviv and related to the killing of Hezbollah’s armed wing commander Fuad Shukr. We decided that it would be the Glilot base.”
According to Mr Nasrallah, the base was chosen because it is home to Israeli military intelligence unit 8200, which is responsible for “organizing politically motivated killings”.
The Hezbollah leader said the group’s operation consisted of two stages, first launching 300 missiles simultaneously and then using drones. “As a result, we managed to distract Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and some of the drones reached their targets, although the enemy is hiding this fact.” Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah did not use ballistic missiles in the attack but did not rule out using them in the future.
“The retaliation for Shukr’s death was successful, as we planned,” Nasrallah was quoted as saying by Al Manar TV. However, he did not rule out the possibility that if Hezbollah is not satisfied with the results of its operations and Israel’s response, it “reserves the right to strike back at Israel again.”
