Nasrallah: Hezbollah Stronger in Every Way than During 2006 Victory over Israelis

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (Photo: Al-Manar, file)

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned the Lebanese resistance movement is capable of defeating Israel in the event of a new conflict.

The Hezbollah secretary-general made the comments in a televised address marking the 11th anniversary of the Lebanese victory in the 2006 Israeli war.

“Defeat and humiliation were what the Israeli enemy won in 2006, and in the event of a new war, they will win again,” he said.

Congratulating the people of Lebanon and the relatives of those who fell in combat, Nasrallah explained that the victory was a result of Hezbollah fighters’ patience, faith and firmness, as well as the support of the “people of resistance” in Southern Lebanon.

The war began when the southern Lebanon-based militia captured two Israeli soldiers to exchange for Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israelis deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and its most advanced military hardware during the war, including the widespread use of banned cluster munitions, but made little progress and sustained major losses.

“Even now, Israel is learning things from 11 years ago. They are trying to find something here or there to prove to the Israeli people that they were victorious,” Nasrallah said.

“Ever since 2006, Hezbollah has been growing stronger,” he further claimed. “Hezbollah is much more sophisticated — sophisticated in every aspect: capabilities, military strategies and in numbers.”

The leader of the Shia party added that his forces are prepared to confront any aggression from “the Zionist enemy,” warning that if a new Israeli war is imposed on Lebanon, Tel Aviv will be defeated.

“Every time an Israeli official refers to Hezbollah’s growing power, he admits Israeli defeat in the summer of 2006,” he said.

Hezbollah was formed in 1985 as a resistance group born out of repression against the Shia Muslim minority. It defines itself through its struggle against Israeli settler-colonialism in Palestine and Lebanon, particularly the 1982 Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon which ended in the defeat of Israel and its humiliating withdrawal from the country in 2000.

Hezbollah claimed it inflicted a historic second defeat on the Israelis when Tel Aviv launched another campaign against southern Lebanon in 2006, which lasted for 34 days and claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and displaced about a million people.

Following weeks of conflict and the Israelis’ subsequent retreat, Nasrallah famously declared the war’s outcome a “Divine Victory” over Zionist aggression. The view that Hezbollah won the conflict was widely supported by observers, including Western military experts.

“After the July war, from Aug 14, 2006. until today, it has gained strength. Even the enemy admits to this,” Nasrallah said. “Every time someone bet on the defeat of the resistance and today anytime someone tries to do this, they will lose this bet.”

(teleSUR, PC, Social Media)

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