The pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement vowed on Sunday to continue the fight against Israel and support its main ally Hamas in Gaza, despite the heavy blow dealt by Israel this week. According to them, the conflict has entered a new phase.
“We are following the front of support and confrontation… we will kill them and fight from where they expect and from where they do not expect,” said Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general Sheikh Naeem Kassem, referring to the Israelis. He was speaking at the funeral of Ibrahim Akil, a senior commander in the movement.
“We will now determine how we respond to the aggression. We have entered a new phase with the Israeli army, the ‘Battle of the Open Account’,” Kassem said.
He promised that residents of northern Israel will not return, but that displacement will actually increase as the movement steps up its attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon.
“We are prepared to use all military options and you will see the results,” Kassem said, referring to a possible war with Israel.
The slain commander Akil was Hezbollah’s chief strategist
Akil was killed along with 44 other people when Israeli warplanes struck a building where he and other commanders of the movement’s elite forces, Radwan Force, were holding a meeting beneath a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a hotbed of the movement.
Kassem said at the funeral that Akil was the commander of Hezbollah’s operations and that he founded Radwan in 2008.
According to Hezbollah sources, 16 members of the force were killed in the Israeli airstrike on Friday.
Hezbollah: Israel guilty of ‘three war crimes’
The Hezbollah official said Israel committed “three war crimes” by attacking residential areas and homes, and not just its fighters.
Tensions have also risen in recent days, as Hezbollah beepers and walkie-talkies exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing more than 70 people and wounding 68 others. Hezbollah has blamed Israel, which has not commented.
Men dressed in black and others in military uniforms wept as the coffins of Akil and another commander passed by during the funeral.
“God is Great…God bless Nasrallah,” the angry crowd chanted as they raised their fists in the air in support of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
Israel has been in daily gun battles with Hezbollah since the conflict with the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in Gaza began almost a year ago.
