His features were marked, but his tone was one of defiance. In a speech broadcast on television at midday on Monday, September 30, the determination displayed by Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah's number two, and the threats he made to Israel were the same as those made by Hassan Nasrallah in his last televised speech on September 19, before he was killed on September 27.
The Shiite religious leader's message was clear: While Israel had inflicted a terrible blow on Hezbollah as part of a painful series of setbacks, the assassination of their leader in an Israeli strike would do nothing to change the armed movement's plans. "We are present on the ground. Despite the loss of some leaders and the aggression against Lebanon, which has brought chaos to our front, we will remain there. As the Islamic resistance, we will continue to confront the Israeli enemy and support Palestine and our Lebanese people," insisted Kassem, wearing a white turban.
The plan was to maintain the course set by Nasrallah, when he opened a front against Israel "in support of Gaza," to loosen the stranglehold on the Palestinian enclave, caught under a deluge of Israeli fire since Hamas carried out a murderous attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Speaking just hours before Israel launched its ground operation in southern Lebanon on Monday evening, Kassem claimed that Hezbollah was "ready" to repel the offensive. The Party of God believes it can regain the upper hand in a ground confrontation, unlike the intelligence warfare and air strike campaign in which Israel has demonstrated undeniable superiority.
Hezbollah's number two insisted on the enduring resilience of the Shiite armed movement despite the decapitation inflicted on its leadership, the destruction of part of its military arsenal and the sabotage of its communications system. "The command will continue to act with the same precision according to the plan we have drawn up" and "at the same pace," said Kassem. "We are replacing every leader. Israel has not managed to affect our military capabilities (...)," he continued.
The loss of the high-ranking leaders, including some of the movement's founders in the 1980s, is clearly a blow. "It's mainly a blow to morale, but that doesn't mean that Hezbollah is falling apart," said Nicholas Blanford, a Hezbollah specialist at the Atlantic Council think tank. "The chain of command has not been totally destroyed by the death of its generals. There are intermediate officers to replace them. It's a highly structured institution, which functions like a regular army," continued the expert. However, sources in Hezbollah strongholds report that the party is more disorganized than it was during the 2006 war against Israel.
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