Hezbollah, which praised Hamas for its deadly actions, did not launch a ground offensive against northern Israel. His actions were limited to a few exchanges of fire at the border – the blue line.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general since 1992, will speak this Friday at 3 p.m. for the first time since the deadly Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, the movement announced in a press release issued Sunday evening. His speech is rather rare, which makes every speech eventful. A video posted on social media a few hours earlier showed the Hezbollah leader walking from behind in front of the Hezbollah logo.
Hezbollah, which praised Hamas for its deadly actions, did not launch a ground offensive against northern Israel. His actions were limited to a few exchanges of fire at the border – the blue line. “The only thing that encourages Hezbollah to show restraint is the economic situation in Lebanon. The country has been anemic since 2019 and is hoping for the return of Gulf funds following the détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran under the auspices of China. Furthermore, the exploitation of offshore gas fields has only just begun. If Hezbollah were to provoke Israel and ultimately bring about the destruction of part of the country, at a time when Lebanon has economic hope, it would be very badly received,” analyzed Didier Leroy, researcher at the Royal Military School of Belgium at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) at Le Figaro.
Also read: Hamas attack in Israel: Why Hezbollah has not (yet) launched a ground offensive
Naim Qassem, number two in the movement, announced in 2021 that his troops were “perfectly prepared”. According to Hassan Nasrallah, its arsenal would include 130,000 projectiles, rockets and missiles, but also tanks, drones, launchers… and almost 100,000 men. The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of several villages in the north of the country on the Lebanese border. It fears an expansion of the conflict and the entry into the war of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed faction that is much better armed and trained than Hamas. Such a situation would force the IDF to divide its forces and monitor the movements of pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq that could come to Hezbollah’s aid.
In 2006, Israel intervened in the Gaza Strip to release a hostage, French-Israeli Gilad Shalit, and to stop rockets being fired into Israeli territory. 18 days after the start of this summer rain operation, Hezbollah attacks an IDF patrol on the border. In response, he began the 33-Day War. Iran had supported its ally Hezbollah with significant ammunition and training. Eventually, the Israeli army withdrew, inflicting significant losses on the Islamist movement without destroying it.