Defiance, but a rare admission of vulnerability – Hezbollah chief’s message means devastation will continue
The unscheduled speech by the Hezbollah leader was revealing as much as it was defiant.
It came after back-to-back days of booby-trapped communication devices exploding across Lebanon.
Dozens have been killed – fighters and supporters as well as women and at least two children.
This was the first time his fighting group was to hear from its head after two days of terror and a great deal of shock at the unprecedented method of attack.
Hassan Nasrallah’s speeches, broadcast through the Hezbollah television channel, tend to attract thousands in public gatherings, which are a chance for his fervent supporters to demonstrate their loyalty.
The gatherings are usually marked by much cheering and chanting.
Not this time – perhaps because of the security risk after the group’s communication network was so demonstrably compromised, there was no large public gathering.
Instead, huddles gathered around televisions in their homes and cafes to listen to what the head of one of the most powerful non-state fighting groups had to say.
Nasrallah himself always delivers his speeches remotely for the same security reasons.
From his secret location, the religious and military leader known for his long, rousing speeches admitted the superiority of Israel’s technological ability.
‘Unprecedented blow’
He accepted how much of an impact the string of pager explosions and those of hand-held radios had exacted on his outfit – designated a terror group by the US and UK.
He called the explosions “severe” and admitted they’d delivered an “unprecedented” blow to his group.
To his tens of thousands of followers, these are words they probably never expected to hear from their leader, who’s spent years boasting of the group’s military capabilities and strengths.
In recent speeches, he’s told his loyalists how they have a fighting force of more than 100,000 and urged fighters from abroad who wanted to come and join Hezbollah in the war with Israel that they didn’t need them.
“We have enough,” he’s said. “We can do it on our own.”
An admission of vulnerability from Hassan Nasrallah is a very rare statement.
And even as the cafes of south Beirut were packed while they listened to the Hezbollah leader vow revenge and “just punishment” against their neighbour, Israeli jets flew low and noisily over the capital, Beirut – at one stage causing sonic booms, setting off car alarms and causing fresh anxiety among an already edgy population.
Hezbollah has launched an internal investigation into how their communications network was so comprehensively infiltrated.
He’d already warned his followers to stop using their mobile phones back in February when the group suspected they were being tracked after several commanders were killed.
‘Red lines’
Less surprising was Nasrallah’s defiance – a trademark not of his but, it seems, most of his supporters.
He denounced Israel for what he called a massacre that “crossed all red lines”, saying civilians were among the victims and the pagers and radios were blown up in a range of public spaces – markets, shops, homes and hospitals.
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And he ominously went on to warn his group would not let the Israelis return their citizens to the north.
In nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border attacks since Hezbollah entered the war saying they were supporting the Palestinians in Gaza, thousands of residents in both Israel and Lebanon have been forced out of their communities on either side of the border because of the attacks.
The Israeli prime minister and his defence minister have both vowed to return Israeli citizens to their border homes, with Yoav Gallant declaring a “new phase of the war” – although Israel has not publicly accepted responsibility for the device explosions.
But Hassan Nasrallah indicated that plan is likely to lead to a long and bloody battle.
“No killings, no assassinations, no all-out war can return residents to the border,” he vowed.
And that seems to signal there’ll be no let-up in the deaths and devastation.
Additional reporting from Beirut with camera Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon team Jihad Jneid, Hwaida Saad and Sami Zein
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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