Israeli attack on Lebanon will ignite new version of 2006 war: Hezbollah deputy chief

“The Zionist enemy continues to threaten us with military aggression, and we respond by means of steadfastness, resistance, and retaliatory strikes,” Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said at the sixth International Conference for the Union of Resistance Scholars in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Monday.

“We, hereby, declare that if they commit a foolish act and attack our territories, there would then be a new version of the 2006 July war,” Sheikh Qassem said.

He added that scholars and thinkers from various Muslim countries have come together to raise their voices loudly in support of the heroic and honorable Axis of Resistance, stressing that Resistance fighters will eventually emerge triumphant despite all the hardship and challenges they are enduring on the path to their final objectives.

The top Hezbollah official described the surprise and large-scale Operation al-Aqsa Storm launched by Gaza-based Resistance factions against Israel as the Palestinians’ natural and legitimate reaction to the 75-years-long occupation of their land by the Zionist regime.

“The Zionist regime is an aggressive and usurping entity that has been set up in the region in order to bring it under complete control and destroy it later on. The United States wants to be in charge of our region, as it can assert marked sway and influence in such a case,” Sheikh Qassem said.

He went on to say that Israel could not have managed to continue its relentless ground and aerial strikes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip without the US military and intelligence support, denouncing the ongoing atrocities as pre-planned and meant to decimate the entire population in the coastal area.

Sheikh Qassem also cast doubts on Western calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, describing them as theatrical and deceitful.

He underlined that Hezbollah conducts operations against Israeli military outposts in the 1948 occupied territories in retaliation for the bloody aggression against Gazans and all out of its humanitarian and religious duties towards the oppressed Palestinian nation.

For his part, Osama Hamdan, a senior representative of Hamas in Lebanon, stated that Arab and Muslim nations are duty-bound to join forces and frustrate the Israeli regime’s policy of intentionally starving Palestinians in Gaza.

“Our people have withstood the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza for the last 150 days through unwavering resilience and unshakable determination. Gaza-based Resistance factions conducted Operation al-Aqsa Strom at the time when the occupying regime was about to liquidate the Palestinian cause and Resistance front.”

He stressed that the Axis of Resistance reintroduced the Palestinian issue as the primary concern of the Muslim world, foiled fiendish US plots, and reiterated that it is impossible to coexist with the usurping Tel Aviv regime.  

“It is the duty of Arabs and Muslims worldwide to take the initiative and foil Israel’s conspiracy of starvation. The countries neighboring the Gaza Strip must not stand idly by and should take a concrete measure, especially for Gazans in the north,” Hamdan stated.

He emphasized that Palestinian Resistance forces will continue their armed struggle against Israel during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Mohammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary general of the Islamic Jihad Resistance movement, also noted that enemies are trying to annihilate the Palestinian cause and the Resistance front through all-out blockades and successive wars.

“The United States wants to fill the void in the region by means of the Zionist enemy, because it serves the West’s interests. The Israeli regime has failed to crush the Resistance front, and has not succeeded in releasing any of its captives,” he said.

Hindi underscored that Washington is deeply concerned about the spillover of the Gaza conflict, condemning the US airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“It is ironic that the United States, which is supplying the Israeli enemy with various armament, is the party dropping food bundles for Gazans. That is chicken feed compared to what they need,” the high-ranking Islamic Jihad official said.

The Israeli regime’s genocidal war in Gaza has killed at least 30,534 people, most of them children and women. Another 71,920 individuals have also been wounded.