Terrorist group Hezbollah is threatening to expand its fight against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), praising Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel as “heroic.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address that the terror group has been embroiled in the conflict since the day after the Oct. 7 attacks that killed more than 1,400 Israelis. The speech was his first since the war began last month.
“Some are claiming that Hezbollah is going to join the battle. I tell you: We have been engaged in this battle since October 8,” he says. “Some would like Hezbollah to engage in an all-out war, but I can tell you: What is happening now on the Israeli-Lebanese border is important and it is not the end.”
Nasrallah boasted of the 57 Hezbollah fighters killed in the battle against the IDF and vowed to continue his “true battle” against the Jewish nation.
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“What we have done since October 8 is unprecedented in terms of our battle strategy. Every day, we are targeting Israeli soldiers, tanks, drones and sensors, the eyes and ears of Israel,” Nasrallah said.
He added, “We are engaged in a real battle. Our witness count — 57 — bears witness to that.”
Nasrallah claimed on Friday that he was unaware of Hamas’ plans for Oct. 7, even as he called the brutal attack that killed more than 1,400 Israeli civilians “a heroic, brave act.”
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People inside a barbershop watch a televised speech by Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut’s Tariq Al-Jadida neighborhood on November 3, 2023. (JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images)
“We welcome it,” he said in his video speech.
Praising Hamas for its violent attacks and referring to Israel as “occupiers”, Nasrallah said the October 7 terror attacks were strictly a Palestinian operation.
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A boy waves the flag of the Hezbollah party during a rally ahead of a speech by the party’s leader in the southern suburbs of Beirut on November 3, 2023, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)
The terror leader claimed he was not informed of the attack before it began.
Nasrallah made the same claim about Iran, claiming that the deadly attacks were carried out without the knowledge of the Iranian government.
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An Israeli artillery unit fires during a military exercise in the annexed Golan Heights near the border with Lebanon on November 2, 2023. (PHOTO/AFP via Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah on Friday not to enter the conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel calling for humanitarian “pauses” in the fighting to facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas and limit civilian casualties.
However, after the meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu said that “Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire that does not include the return of our hostages.”
