BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s chief, Naim Qassem, said on Wednesday that the group has “tens of thousands” of trained fighters ready to fight Israel and asserted that no location within Israeli territory would be off-limits to Hezbollah attacks.
Qassem said this in a pre-recorded speech marking 40 days since the death of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
“We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants ready to fight,” Qassem said. He added that “nowhere in Israel” would be spared if Hezbollah were to escalate its military actions.
Qassem said that Hezbollah’s strategy and commitment to resistance remain unaffected by political developments abroad, including the results of the US presidential election. “Whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins means nothing to us,” he said, adding that Hezbollah’s focus remains on “the battlefield.”
The speech marked Qassem’s second major address since assuming leadership of Hezbollah, replacing Nasrallah, who led the group for over three decades.
Qassem suggested that any halt to the current hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon would not be driven by diplomatic or political considerations but rather by developments on the ground. “What will stop this…war is the battlefield,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Airports Authority reported that operations at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv were continuing without disruption, despite Hezbollah’s claim that it had launched missiles at an Israeli military base close to the airport.
“Ben Gurion airport is open and operating as normal for takeoffs and landings,” the airport authority’s spokesperson, Liza Dvir, told AFP. She added that no damage had been reported to the airport’s runway.
Hezbollah said that the missile attack targeted the Tzrifin military base, located near Ben Gurion Airport, marking the first such assault in over a month of escalating conflict between the group and Israel.
The Israeli military said that approximately ten projectiles were launched from Lebanon, triggering warning sirens in northern and central Israel. “Most of the projectiles were intercepted, and one fallen projectile was identified in central Israel,” the Israeli military said.
