File image.
A Hezbollah military commander told Al Jazeera on April 27 that the group will use “1980s tactics and activate martyrdom units to prevent the enemy from stabilizing.”
Hezbollah has already deployed “large groups of martyrdom operatives in the occupied area according to pre-prepared plans,” the unnamed commander said
“The mission of the martyrdom operatives is to engage directly with the enemy’s officers and soldiers in the occupied Lebanese villages,” he added.
The commander’s remarks came amid a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel that was announced by United States President Donald Trump. He initially said the ceasefire would last for just ten days before announcing a three-week extension.
The Israeli military halted its advance in southern Lebanon after the ceasefire began, but it has been working to establish a security zone in the area while preventing more than 600,000 people displaced by its operations from returning. It has also been exchanging strikes with Hezbollah on a regular basis, with the group’s operations increasing in the last few days.
When Hezbollah first emerged in the 1980s, it waged an asymmetric war against the Israeli military, mainly using suicide attacks.
In the 1990s, Hezbollah transformed from a revolutionary group into a political one, in a process which has been described as the “Lebanonisation” of Hezbollah. As a part of this process, the group stopped carrying out suicide attacks, and shifted to more conventional military tactics and weaponry, notably the use of rockets.
Nevertheless, in a speech following the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, Hezbollah’s late Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah revealed that the group still has “martyrdom units.”
“The Americans will leave our region humiliated, defeated, terrified, and feared, just as they left before. The martyrs who drove America out of our region in the past are still present, and in far greater numbers than before,” Nasrallah said at the time.
Hezbollah is currently facing immense pressure not just from Israel and the U.S., but also from the Lebanese government itself, which has vowed to disarm the group and outlawed its operations.
The remarks attributed by Al Jazeera to a commander of Hezbollah indicate that the group is willing to go to the end in its fight against Israel.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
