Although large-scale assault from Lebanon was largely thwarted, terror group leader maintains it achieved its goals, says he’s waiting to ascertain results were ‘satisfactory’
25 August 2024, 10:22 pm
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed on Sunday that an attempted massive attack on Israel by his terror group the night before, which was largely thwarted by Israel, had been completed “as planned” and caused vast disruption.
Israel conducted a preemptive assault overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in which it said 100 planes destroyed thousands of rocket launcher barrels inside Lebanese territory shortly before they were to be used, and then intercepted most of the 230 rockets and 20 drones Hezbollah did fire.
In his speech, Nasrallah maintained that the attack had caused “great disruptions” inside Israel. He indicated that the operation was conducted in two phases: Firstly, he claimed, the terror group fired over 320 Katyusha rockets on 11 different military sites to keep Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system busy, and then it launched dozens of drones directed at central Israel.
He indicated that the two main objectives targeted by the drones were the Glilot base just north of Tel Aviv, which houses the IDF’s 8200 elite intelligence unit and is adjacent to Mossad headquarters, and another unspecified military installation located 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Tel Aviv and 75 kilometers (47 miles) from the Lebanon border. “According to our intelligence, the drones reached their target,” he said, claiming Israel was failing to admit this. “We achieved and surpassed our objectives.”
He boasted that Hezbollah’s drones arrived very close to Tel Aviv, since Glilot is a suburb of the coastal city, but insisted that the operation only targeted military objectives, not civilian ones.
Nasrallah denied that the IDF had conducted its preemptive attack, claiming that its overnight sortie was only a raid and that it did not destroy Hezbollah’s ballistic missiles.
“Talk about how the resistance [Hezbollah] was going to launch 8,000 or 6,000 rockets and drones and that [Israel] thwarted this… are false claims,” Nasrallah said, adding that only “dozens of rocket launchers” were destroyed.
The Israel Defense Forces said that the Hezbollah attack was “mostly” thwarted, and that no military bases were damaged in the attack, but a Navy sailor on a patrol boat was killed by shrapnel from an interceptor. It said the minority of Hezbollah rockets that impacted caused damage to homes and lightly injured at least one person.
The IDF also indicated that none of the drones impacted central Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that “the IDF intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at strategic targets in the center of the country.”
Nasrallah made the baseless claim that the IDF was concealing the actual damage caused in the attack, adding that the terror group would keep following the situation and await confirmation that the assault had been “satisfactory.” In that case, Hezbollah would deem the retaliation for the assassination of its military commander Fuad Shukr complete. Otherwise, it “reserves the right” to strike again at a later time, Nasrallah said.
Shukr was killed in an IDF strike in Beirut on July 30, three days after a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Israeli children in a Druze village on the Golan Heights; Israel held Shukr responsible.
At the outset of his speech, Nasrallah explained why the retaliation took so long. He said that the delay was due to the Israeli and US military “mobilization” in the region. The long wait was also intended as a punishment for Israel as the country was kept on edge for almost a month, he added.
In addition, Hezbollah was awaiting the outcome of ongoing truce talks between Hamas and Israel, but as Netanyahu “keeps adding new conditions, there is no point in waiting any further,” he said.
Furthermore, Nasrallah explained that Hezbollah needed time to see if the “axis of Resistance” — Iran and its regional proxies — would respond at the same time, or separately.
In that regard, he added that Hezbollah’s attack was conducted independently of other allies. He said Iranian retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month — blamed on Israel but not claimed by Israel — and retaliation by the Houthis for the July 24 Israeli bombing of the port of Hodeidah have not yet taken place, and could be months in the making, but assured that both entities “consider themselves obliged to respond, and will respond.”
Nasrallah noted that the retaliatory attack took place on a date of particular religious significance for Shiites, the Arbaeen (“40” in Arabic). The date marks 40 days after the Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the third Shia imam. Nasrallah named Saturday’s night attack “Operation Arbaeen Day,” Hezbollah’s official website Al Manar reported.
The attack caused minor disruptions in Israel, with Ben Gurion Airport shut for almost two hours on Sunday morning, and dozens of flights to both Tel Aviv and Beirut diverted, postponed or canceled.
Officials in Israel placed restrictions on gatherings and educational activities in areas from Tel Aviv northward for much of Sunday morning, but lifted those at about 1 p.m. as life slowly began to resume normalcy following the largely foiled barrage.
Hezbollah announced that two of its operatives were killed in fighting Sunday, bringing the terror groups’ death toll in the current conflict with Israel to 430. On Sunday evening, spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that at least six Hezbollah operatives had been killed.
Separately, the Amal group, which is allied with Hezbollah, said one of its fighters was killed in a strike on a car.
The heavy exchange of fire came following weeks of intense diplomatic activity aimed at keeping Hezbollah’s promised response to Shukr’s killing from sparking a wider conflict, after 10 months of low-level cross-border fire that has brought the sides to the brink of war.
Hezbollah began shooting rockets at Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas following the Gazan terror group’s October 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel, which sparked an Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian enclave. Other Iranian proxy groups have also attacked Israel in support of Hamas.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/nasrallah-falsely-claims-hezbollah-attack-was-success-reserves-right-to-strike-again/.
About The Author
