TEHRAN (Iran News) Speaking in a televised speech on Saturday evening, Sheikh Naim Qassem said that “the Zionist enemy seeks to exterminate any form of resistance that confronts its expansionist ambitions across the region.”

“Israeli atrocities aimed at elimination of the resistance front have been unsuccessful, substantiating the fact that such brutalities could not be viewed as achievement at all,” he added.

He noted that Hezbollah’s retaliatory rocket and drone attacks on illegal Israeli settlements in the northern parts of the occupied territories drove tens of thousands of residents to seek refuge in shelters. “The only pain they (the Israeli regime) could inflict upon us was the targeted killing of our leaders.”

Sheikh Qassem went on to highlight that Hezbollah anticipated the Israeli military aggression on Lebanon both before and after the surprise and large-scale operation by Gaza-based resistance groups, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, against the Zionist entity on October 7 last year, but did not know about the exact timing.

“The key factors behind our victory were the steadfastness of resistance fighters, and the sacrifices made through the blood of martyrs. Surrender and humiliation have no place in our lexicon as Hezbollah’s resistance is fierce and spirited,” he said, according to Press TV.

The Hezbollah chief stated that the Lebanese resistance movement made big sacrifices in standing firm against the Israeli regime, adding that Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories could be liberated only by means of resistance.

Sheikh Qassem also noted that the Israeli military would have captured the Lebanese capital Beirut if it were not for the sacrifices of Hezbollah fighters.

Elsewhere in his speech, the Hezbollah chief pointed to the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group, stating that the agreement rather ended fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah forces for the time being; but not the struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Sheikh Qassem underscored that methods and means of resistance can vary interchangeably, adding that the resistance front will come out victorious in the face of Israel despite losses it has endured.

“The future of resistance requires that we confront our enemies through mass mobilization, strength and unwavering determination,” he said.

“The Israeli enemy’s goal is to subjugate the entire region, just as it attempted in Gaza and Syria. We are facing an expansionist enemy that has seized hundreds of kilometers, including the occupied Golan Heights,” the Hezbollah leader added.

He stressed that the Lebanese army has made great sacrifices, losing dozens of its soldiers to protect the Arab nation’s sovereignty.

“Hezbollah remains strong, and continues to thrive despite challenges and difficulties. Hezbollah is steadfast and recovering quickly. Those who anticipated its collapse have been bitterly disappointed.”

“We will actively participate alongside state institutions in the reconstruction of Lebanon, and will work seriously to elect a new president,” Sheikh Qassem said.

Turning to Syria, he stated that Hezbollah supported the country because it consistently stood in opposition to Israeli plots.

“Now that the government of Bashar al-Assad has fallen, we wait for the formation of a new administration to determine its position and direction. We hope that the new leadership in Syria would further foster cooperation between Syrian and Lebanese nations and governments on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” he said.

He also expected Syria’s interim government to view Israel as an enemy, and refrain from normalization of diplomatic ties with the Tel Aviv regime.

“We do not believe that the ongoing developments in Syria will have any significant impact on Lebanon,” Sheikh Qassem concluded.

TEHRAN (Iran News) The resistance group vowed complete readiness to counter further potential Israeli aggression against the country, while considering the recent ceasefire deal that was reached between the regime and the movement to have been driven by its thousands-strong triumphant operations.

In a statement on Wednesday, the movement warned that it had prepared more than 300 defense lines south of the Litani River, saying its fighters, who have been deployed to each spot, were at the highest level of their readiness in terms of fighting force, equipment, and capabilities.

“The Islamic Resistance Operations Room confirms that its fighters from various military specialties will remain fully prepared to deal with the Israeli enemy’s ambitions and attacks,” it asserted.

“Their eyes will continue to follow the movements and withdrawals of the enemy’s forces beyond the borders, and their hands will remain on the trigger, in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and for the sake of the dignity and honor of its people,” the group noted.

Hezbollah said it pledged to complete the path of resistance with greater determination, and to continue standing by the side of the oppressed, the weak, and the resistance in Palestine with the holy city of al-Quds as its capital, “which will remain a title and a path for generations dreaming of freedom and liberation.”

Recounting its numerous successful retaliatory strikes against Israeli targets, the movement reminded that it kept up the operations for more than 13 straight months in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are subject to a genocidal Israeli war, and in defense of the Lebanese people.

It prided itself on having carried out the operations on the orders of the movement’s former secretary general Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated during intense Israeli airstrikes against Lebanon’s capital Beirut in September, hailing him as the “supreme martyr.”

The operations, the group added, also came as part of its honoring the directions of Nasrallah’s deserving successor, Sheikh Naim Qassem.

Through the strikes, the movement managed “to achieve victory over the delusional enemy that could not undermine its resolve or break its will,” it added.

In conducting the retaliation, Hezbollah’s fighters “were able to bring down its (the enemy’s) goals and defeat its army, and they wrote with their blood their steadfastness and perseverance in the battles of Tufan al-Aqsa and Ula al-Bas,” the group noted.

Tufan al-Aqsa (al-Aqsa Storm aka al-Aqsa Flood) referred to regional resistance movements’ determined defense of the war-hit Palestinians and the resistance factions’ respective territories in the face of deadly Israeli aggression.

The Uli al-Bas battle featured 105 operations, including a markedly successful ambush by Hezbollah against invading Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, during which more than 18 of the troops were killed, 32 others were wounded, and five of their advanced Merkava tanks were destroyed.

The latter set of strikes also featured the group’s Khaybar series of operations, “through which it targeted dozens of strategic and sensitive military and ‘security’ bases, which were hit for the first time in the history of the entity, using qualitative ballistic and precision missiles, and qualitative kamikaze drones.”

The projectiles and the aircraft “reached beyond Tel Aviv, 150 kilometers (93 miles) deep inside the occupied territories,” it stated.

The movement put the total number of its operations at 4,637, namely 11 strikes per day, which targeted the regime’s various strategic and sensitive sites, barracks, bases, cities, and settlements from inside the Lebanese territory to the border between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories and beyond Tel Aviv.

The number of the Israeli fatalities, meanwhile, reached more than 130, while 1,250 others were wounded as a result of the reprisal.

Hezbollah also hailed “destroying 59 Merkava tanks, 11 military bulldozers, two Hummer vehicles, two armored vehicles, and two personnel carriers,” besides shooting down “6 Hermes 450 drones, 2 Hermes 900 drones, and a quadcopter.”

“It should be noted that this tally does not include the Israeli enemy’s losses in military bases, sites, barracks, settlements, and occupied cities.”

The group also fended off the enemy’s invasions of southern Lebanese areas and their attempts to establish a “military and security buffer zone” there.

“Nor was the enemy able to thwart the launching of missiles and drones on the occupied interior; and until the last day of the aggression, our Mujahideen continued to target the enemy’s depth from within the border towns.”

Falling short of realizing its initial ambitions, the regime launched a “second phase of the ground operation that was nothing more than a political and media announcement, as the enemy was unable to advance to the towns of the second line of the front, and suffered heavy losses in the city of Khiam, from which it withdrew three times, and in Ainatha, Taloussa, Bint Jbeil, and Qawzah.”

The Israeli military’s attempts to advance on the towns of al-Bayyda and Shamaa also ended up in the towns becoming “a graveyard for tanks and elite soldiers of the enemy army, who withdrew from it under the blows of the Mujahideen,” Hezbollah stated.

The movement cited the developments in the two towns as evidence of the readiness of its fighters to fend off further likely aggression on the part of the regime.

Hezbollah felicitated the Lebanese nation on the occasion of their “legendary steadfastness and sacrifices that did not stop at the enemy’s illusions,” “shattering” those illusions.

The victory achieved by the Lebanese people and resistance, it added, was witnessed by the displaced Lebanese returning to their homes in the country’s south “with pride and vigor.”

“You roam the corners of the world with victory, and you carry the lofty and steadfast banner in the field and conscience, which will remain resistant to oppression and aggression.”

TEHRAN (Iran News) In an interview with Tasnim on Wednesday, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said the ceasefire between Lebanon and the Zionist regime is tantamount to “a major victory for Lebanese Hezbollah and the resistance front” and also “a humiliating defeat for the Zionist regime”.

Despite the brutal bombardment of Beirut and southern Lebanon, the Israeli regime failed to inflict any substantive damage on Hezbollah during the past two months and could not either penetrate into Lebanon for more than hundreds of meters, a kilometer at most, mainly because of the traps laid by Hezbollah, he added.

Highlighting the Israeli regime’s abject defeat in the ground war, General Vahidi said, “Although the Zionist regime had been hitting the Lebanese residential areas and people with missiles and bombs, it faced Hezbollah’s precise missiles and drones in response that were being launched in considerable amounts and with precision.”

Citing the Israeli officials’ admission that the Zionist regime has achieved none of its objectives in the war against Hezbollah, he said, “Hezbollah could impose its conditions on the Zionist regime in the ceasefire, while the Zionist regime had no option but to approve the ceasefire.”

He emphasized that Hezbollah remains prepared and vigilant to respond to any wrong move by the Israeli regime, adding, “The resistance front will never be tricked by the Zionist regime and is ready to respond to the Zionist regime if necessary.”

Asked if the US has sent a message for Iran and the resistance front that the truce in Lebanon would pave the way for a ceasefire in Gaza, General Vahidi said, “I cannot confirm such message. But the Americans have said ‘we will be pursuing ceasefire in Gaza after Lebanon’. However, we do not trust the US, as the resistance front will not leave Gaza alone by any means.”

He emphasized that the resistance front feels duty-bound to support the people of Gaza as long as a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip does not officially come into force, noting that inflammatory situation will naturally remain in place until the conclusion of a ceasefire.

TEHRAN (Iran News) Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at key Israeli cities, including Petah Tikva, Nahariya, and Haifa, according to the Israeli army.

Hundreds of projectiles from Lebanon struck across Israeli occupied Palestine, causing significant damage, including hits on two military installations.

Vehicles burned, buildings were damaged, and residents in densely populated areas sought refuge in shelters and safe rooms.

Despite Israel’s advanced air defense systems, not all rockets were intercepted.

Several injuries were reported, including one described as serious. Shrapnel from the strikes reached Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, where the lack of shelters or sirens left residents particularly vulnerable.

Several Israeli settlers were wounded in the Tulkarem refugee camp, with buildings sustaining damage.

The Israeli military reported that Hezbollah fired 340 missiles and drones, wounding 11 settlers and inflicting “severe damage” in Tel Aviv.

In southern Lebanon, clashes around the town of Khiam intensified as Israeli troops in Merkava tanks attempted to advance.

Hezbollah fighters resisted fiercely, reportedly destroying two tanks, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Israeli airstrikes targeted several towns in southern Lebanon, killing one person in Deir al-Zahrani and destroying 15 homes in Yammer al-Shaqif.

Clashes also erupted near Shamaa and al-Bayyaada, with Hezbollah launching four rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers in Deir Mimas. Israeli troops reportedly retreated from a strategic hilltop in al-Bayyaada under Hezbollah pressure.

In Tyre, three people were killed in Israeli strikes, while Lebanese officials condemned the attacks.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called an airstrike on al-Amiriya a “brazen rejection” of ongoing ceasefire proposals.

The Times of Israel reported that Israel’s military killed one Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in an attack but then expressed regret for it.

“The (military) regrets the incident and clarifies that it is fighting in a targeted manner against (Hezbollah), and not against the Lebanese Army,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Lebanon remain deadlocked, with fighting continuing on both sides.

In Lebanon, at least 3,754 people have been killed and 15,626 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.