Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against “carrying out a preemptive attack” on his terrorist forces in Lebanon while signaling his hesitance to widen the war on behalf of Hamas.
“We have been fighting a war of fortitude, we haven't reached a knock-out victory. We still need time, to be more realistic,” Nasrallah said Friday in a much-anticipated speech, according to an Al Jazeera interpreter. “We are winning victory by points, not [a] knockout victory.”
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The terrorist warlord’s boxing metaphor punctuated an elaborate justification of Hezbollah’s posture during the war. A senior Hamas official argued last month that “greater things are needed” from Hezbollah, but the Lebanon-based militant used his first major commentary on the war to distance his organization from the planning of the attack and rebuff pressure to intervene while striking a supportive tone.
“Those who claim that Hezbollah should engage swiftly in an all-out war with the enemy might see what's taking place on the border as minimal,” Nasrallah said. “But if we look at what's taking place on our border, objectively, we will find it sizeable. Yet, I assure you, this will not be the end.”
Hamas responded by renewing its demand for more involvement.
“His words about the importance of stopping the attack on Gaza and the importance of Hamas’s victory in Gaza are clear and important," said Osama Hamdan, one of the top Hamas officials in Lebanon. "Hezbollah’s commitment to these two goals [now] requires action on the ground."
Hezbollah has moved a militia brigade to the Lebanese border region with Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces, following weeks of intermittent rocket attacks that have drawn counterstrikes from the Israeli military.
"All these operations force the Israeli enemy to maintain their personnel on the border lines with Lebanon, if not deploy further reinforcement,” the Hezbollah secretary-general said. “They are now deployed on the Lebanese border lines. This means our operations on the border line for the Israeli enemy to concentrate their personnel and forces and equipment on our borders, which were supposed to deploy to Gaza.”
Hamas politburo member Khaled Mashad has insisted that “the scope of the battle” necessitates a pan-Islamic military intervention. His call has drawn mockery inside Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Mashad broke with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in 2012, in contrast to Iran’s choice to deploy military and Lebanese Hezbollah militias into the Syrian civil war in support of the embattled dictator.
"Mashad intervened in the Arab Spring, the destructive spring which wanted to ruin and weaken the Arab world,” said Lebanese politician Wiam Wahhab, who is reputedly close to Hezbollah and talked last year of “sustainable peace” with Israel. “If Khaled Mashal has 30 billion dollars, let him give it to us, and then maybe we can join the war.”
Nasrallah did hold out the possibility of an escalation if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire. "You, the Americans, can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression," he said. "Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and I am talking to the Americans, must quickly halt the aggression on Gaza."
Still, the overall tenor of his remarks, after weeks of silence, underscored Hezbollah's desire to avoid a major clash with the IDF.
"You don't call for a ceasefire if you want to enter war. If you want to beat Israel and prevail victoriously, you wouldn't be asking for a ceasefire," Foundation for Defense of Democracies research fellow Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a U.S.-based analyst from Lebanon, told the Washington Examiner. "I'm happy, as someone whose parents live in Lebanon, I'm happy that ... he didn't declare war to start with."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Nasrallah to remain on the sidelines. “We are determined that there not be a second or third front opened in this conflict,” he said. “And we’ve backed up those words not only with work that we’ve done with many partners in the region to reinforce that message, but with practical deeds, including the deployment of two aircraft carriers battlegroups to the region ... We remain absolutely determined in that effort.”
President Joe Biden’s team in Washington underscored that warning with an ominous invocation of the devastation wrought during Israel’s last war in Lebanon.
"This has the potential of becoming a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon than 2006,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. "The United States does not want to see this conflict expand into Lebanon. The likely devastation for Lebanon and its people would be unimaginable and is avoidable.”
Nasrallah, for his part, claimed Hamas carried out the Oct. 7 attack without the knowledge of anyone outside Gaza, including Hezbollah and the Iranian regime.
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“The Palestinians have kept it secret even from their fellow Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, let alone other resistance factions across the resistance,” he said, referring to the “resistance” against the existence of the state of Israel.
“This move taken by Hamas … precluded all the enemies and hypocrites to raise any false claims, especially when they speak about the relations between the resistance regional resistance factions,” the Hezbollah chief continued. "At any point of time, when there is that battle, they start to speak about the Iranian nuclear program, the U.S.-Iran negotiations to serve the Iranian interests or agenda in the region. False claims. [The Oct. 7 attack] was 100 percent Palestinian in terms of decision and execution.”