Hezbollah leader Nasrallah blasts Israel, says preemptive strikes ‘had no impact’ on retaliatory operations
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Israeli airstrike
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the ShiaIslamist militant groupHezbollah, claimed in a speech on Sunday (August 25) that Israel'spreemptive attacks inLebanon had no impact on theretaliatory operations of Hezbollah.
"We delayed our operation amid a buildup of Israeli and US forces in the region, we could not afford failure, we also discussed retaliating together as a Resistance or separately, we also wanted to give enough time for ceasefire negotiations," he said in his televised speech.
"But since Netanyahu is having new demands for the ceasefire and negotiations are going nowhere, we decided to proceed," he added.
Nasrallah accused the United States of being complicit in Israel's actions. "The US is capable of pressuring Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire, but they won't, they are complicit in everything Israel does," he said.
Nasrullah claimed thatall Hezbollah drones successfully entered Israeli airspace and addedthat the group had no intention of using precision missiles in Sunday's attack, but may deploy them in the near future.
Headded that the Israeli military began strikes onLebanon about 30 minutes before Hezbollah’s operation, but the targeted areas had nothing to do with the operation.
He added that Hezbollah's goals did not involve targeting civilians, despite Israel's attacks on civilians in Lebanon. "From the start, we had goals: no civilian targets, despite the fact that Israel is targeting civilians in Lebanon. We want to protect civilians in Lebanon, and this is why we did not target civilians in Israel. We decided that our targets will be military and have to do with the assassination of Sayyed Fouad Shukr, military intelligence, and the air force," Nasrallah stated.
He also mentioned that their primary target was the Gelilot base, which hosts the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200 and is located near Tel Aviv.
Nasrallah dismissed any claims that Hezbollah intended to hit civilian targets, stating, "Any narrative that we were going to hit civilian targets and that they preempted this is a lie. If any civilian was killed in this operation, it must have been from the enemy's interceptors."
He also rejected Israel's assertion that they targeted 6,000 rockets and drones, asserting, "Israel failed to hit any of Hezbollah's strategic or ballistic missiles."
"The time assigned for the operation was after Fajr prayer at 5:15 am. All missile and drone launchers were set and programmed the night before. Our launchers were north of the Litani river, south of it, and alsointheBeqaa. Israel's preemptive strike had no impact on Hezbollah's retaliatory operations," he said.
The Israeli military claimed that Hezbollah was planning to launch rockets and missiles toward Israel. According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), around 100 fighter jets "struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels" at over 40 sites.
Earlier, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, "A short while ago, the IDF identified the Hezbollah terrorist organization preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the IDF is striking terror targets in Lebanon."
Hezbollah confirmed that it had successfully launched the "first phase" of an attack on Israeli military positions in response to the assassination of Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah's top commanders, in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut in July.
(With inputs from agencies)
