After the death of its leader Nasrallah, the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah is fighting with determination: attacks against Israel continue, the vice president announced. Russia condemned Nasrallah’s killing. Iran has also commented.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Deputy boss Naim Kassim has now spoken out for the first time since his death: he said the fight against Israel would continue and that a decision would be made “soon” about Nasrallah’s successor.
“We know the fight will be long and we are prepared for all possibilities,” Qasim said in a televised address. If Israel decides to launch a ground attack, we are ready.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hinted at a possible ground operation during a visit to the troops. “We will take every opportunity we have,” he declared.
Fight in solidarity with Hamas
Qassim announced that he would continue to fight against Israel in solidarity with the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah wants to “support all brothers in Gaza and defend Lebanon.” Israel has not succeeded in reducing the militants’ military capabilities, Qasim said. There are deputy commanders and replacement candidates if the senior commander is injured.
Qasim has temporarily taken over the leadership of the terrorist organization as its deputy. Supporters still mourned Nasrallah, he said.
Iran’s support
As Iran, Hezbollah’s most important supporter, there is no doubt about the organization’s continued existence. “Hasan Nasrallah became a martyr, but his teachings live on,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Khanani said, state news agency IRNA reported. However, Iran will not send troops to Lebanon: “Iran has no need to send additional or volunteer forces from the Islamic Republic,” Kanani said. Militants in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have “the ability and strength to defend themselves against aggression.”
Iran built Hezbollah during the civil war in Lebanon, while Tehran funded and armed Shiite militias. Hezbollah is part of an “axis of resistance” against Israel led by Iran, which includes the radical Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Russia condemns the killing
Russia condemned Nasrallah’s killing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Nasrallah’s death had led to serious destabilization across the region. The bombing of residential areas in Lebanon caused heavy casualties and could trigger a humanitarian disaster similar to that in Gaza.
“Every civilian casualty is a civilian casualty.”
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin told Reuters news agency that Israel had exercised its right to self-defense in last week’s large-scale airstrikes on Beirut. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and the militant’s top leadership was apparently meeting to plan operations, the spokesman said. But he added: “Every civilian casualty is a civilian casualty.”
In recent months, several senior Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon. On Monday, the Israeli military also announced that an air strike in Lebanon had killed a senior Hamas leader. Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin was killed along with other family members at his home near Tire, Hamas said in a statement. This is the head of Hamas in Lebanon.
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