Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah bragged about the terrorist movement’s missile and drone capabilities, and discounted Israeli attempts to stop weapons shipments, in a speech on Wednesday marking the anniversary of the assassination of former Hezbollah secretary-general Abbas al-Moussawi.
Nasrallah claimed that the movement is able to convert thousands of its missiles into precision missiles, and has been working to do so alongside Iran for years. Israel’s “war between wars” has been “fruitless,” he said, and that Israel’s actions to confront Hezbollah’s weapons projects had actually led to “excellent results” for the movement.
The Hezbollah leader said the movement is able to manufacture drones, and will sell to whoever wants to buy.
Nasrallah encouraged Israel to keep trying to find the multiple locations where Hezbollah stores and produces weapons.
“We may be facing an Ansariya 2,” he said, a seeming reference to a deadly ambush that targeted the Israeli Shayetet 13 special operations unit near the town of Ansariya south of Sidon on September 4, 1997.
The Hezbollah leader said that since Hezbollah had activated air defenses in Lebanon, Israeli military air traffic had decreased over the country.
Nasrallah additionally compared the current situation in Lebanon to the situation in 1982, saying that the “identity” of Lebanon both now and then was “under threat,” and that it was Hezbollah who preserved the country’s identity 40 years ago and would continue to do so.
“The resistance continues to work by confronting the threats, ambitions and projects of the enemy,” said Nasrallah. “It protects Lebanon. It supports the people of Palestine and has its eye on Jerusalem and the holy sites, despite all the conspiracies and difficulties inside and outside.”
The Hezbollah leader dismissed claims that the movement was attempting to prevent elections, and said the movement insisted on protecting and strengthening the Lebanese Army.
“What is required in the coming weeks is for people to listen consciously and logically,” he said.
Nasrallah pushed the claim that Israel was in decline. “In 2006, the ‘Great Israel’ fell,” he said, and further claimed that senior leaders in Israel had a similar opinion. Iran and its proxies often push claims that Israel is in decline and will be destroyed.
The Hezbollah leader ridiculed countries that normalized relations with Israel, saying they were trying to “inject some life” into Israel.
“One of the signs of the decline and demise of the entity is the unwillingness of the Israelis to bear the risks of fighting – and the Israeli youth today do not go to the army – the decline of the Israelis’ confidence in the army and the increase in emigration,” said Nasrallah.
He also ridiculed offers of aid to Lebanon by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, saying that Hezbollah has seen “soldiers on the border searching in the garbage so that they could eat.”
Hezbollah-affiliated reporters often take pictures of soldiers along the border with Lebanon in attempts to ridicule them, including making fun of soldiers who are resting.
In a speech earlier this month, Nasrallah wrote off Israeli threats against the movement’s precision missile program, saying that “if the Israeli entity was certain of victory over Hezbollah through the war, it would not have hesitated for one moment.”
Earlier this month, Gantz issued an administrative seizure order against three Lebanese companies for allegedly providing raw materials to Hezbollah for its precision missile project.