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SvennoJ 1 day ago
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‘Final victory will be ours’, declares new Hezbollah leader

Naim Qassem has delivered his first speech as the secretary-general of Hezbollah, sending a message of defiance and resistance to Israel.

“Final victory will be ours,” he said in a nearly hour-long pre-recorded video, with the flags of Lebanon and Hezbollah and an image of his assassinated predecessor Hassan Nasrallah behind him.

Qassem said Nasrallah was like a brother to him, and assassinated leader Hashem Safieddine was a man upon whom Nasrallah could heavily rely on. He described killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar as “an icon of heroism and Palestinian resistance and the free people of the world”.

Qassem vowed that under his leadership, Hezbollah will continue the work of Nasrallah and keep fighting a war with Israel while following the same political path.

“Helping Gaza is our duty and we will defend it to counter the Israeli threat for the entire region.”

Here are some other main messages delivered by the new Hezbollah chief:

  • It was Hezbollah, along with the army and the Lebanese people who previously forced Israel out of the country, not international resolutions.
  • Israel has carried out 39,000 aggressions from land, sea and air against Hezbollah, one cannot say they are bound by laws and we prompted them to attack.
  • The Israelis plan to build settlements on Lebanese soil, but we are capable of pushing them back.
  • No one is fighting on our behalf, and we are not fighting on anyone’s behalf. Our project is to protect our homeland and defend our country.
  • Iran supports us, but does not make demands of us. If any other Arab or Islamic country wishes to back us in confronting Israel, we will welcome it.
  • We are facing a major project in the region, which is a war that is not limited to Lebanon and Gaza, rather a global war against the resistance.


Strikes hit Lebanon’s Baalbek after Israel threatened residents to leave: Report

Air strikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts, an AFP correspondent reported, hours after Israel issued a forced displacement call for the area. Baalbek Mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes hit the city and its surroundings, while state media said “enemy warplanes launched a series of strikes on the al-Asira area of the city of Baalbek” and in a nearby town.

Earlier today, Baalbek residents rushed out of their homes after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon’s biggest eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.

The Israeli army threatened residents of Baalbek and surrounding villages to leave immediately, saying it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets. The main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic, an AFP correspondent reported.


Israeli fighter jets raid across Lebanon as Baalbek hit

The series of Israeli air strikes that we earlier reported hitting Lebanon’s eastern Baalbek targeted the al-Asira area, along with the town of Iaat and its surroundings within the past hour, according to the country’s National News Agency (NNA).

Israeli attack and surveillance drones were reported flying over the area shortly before the strikes.

Here is a series of other attacks launched by Israel across Lebanon in short proximity to the strikes on Baalbek, as reported by the NNA:

  • Israeli aircraft launched violent raids on Sohmor and Labaya in western Bekaa.
  • Israel bombed homes in the Wadi al-Asafir area in the city of Khiam.
  • Israeli aircraft launched a raid on a residential area near the industrial city in the suburbs of Tyre.
  • Israeli forces attacked a home in the agricultural area near Tyre, and hit the towns of al-Shaitiyah and al-Malikiyah.
  • An Israeli air strike targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Sarirah in the Jezzine region.


Baalbek air strikes look ‘to be far wider than we thought’

There are several air strikes taking place along the roads people are using to flee after Israel gave that evacuation order.

People are still trying to get out of those very densely populated areas. The governor of Baalbek has also been urging residents to leave.

Israel does have, under humanitarian international law, a responsibility to any civilians that are left there. It has to protect them. But we do know that Israel doesn’t take stock in international humanitarian law.

These air strikes look like they’re going to be far wider than perhaps we thought. They look like they are still coming in along the roads – where Israel has said people need to evacuate. It’s very densely populated, and very densely packed places have been placed under evacuation orders.

Translation: An Israeli raid targeted diesel tanks in the plain of the town of Douris (southwest of Baalbek)