Eager to demonstrate that it is capable of fighting after losing many of its top leaders, the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday announced it will begin “the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.”
The Hezbollah statement said the decision to enter this nebulous new phase was made “based on the directives of the Resistance Command.”
The terrorists promised that their new strategy “will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days.”
Hezbollah also claimed it has killed ten Israeli soldiers and wounded 150 others in skirmishes over the past few days, and destroyed nine of Israel’s Merkava tanks and four of its militarized bulldozers.
Much of this destruction was purportedly inflicted with drones and precision-guided missiles, which are new additions to the Hezbollah armory. On the defensive side, the “Hezbollah Operations Room” claimed its forces were able to shoot down two Israeli Hermes 450 spy drones.
Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran stated, through their mission to the United Nations, that “the spirit of resistance will be strengthened” despite Israel’s successful operations against terrorist leadership.
Some of the militaristic language in Hezbollah’s statement was merely grandiose theater, intended to make both supporters and opponents believe the group remains well-organized and combat-effective. However, Reuters reported last week that Hezbollah did manage to cobble together a new “operations room” within 72 hours of the old one getting blown to bits along with group leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.
The longtime Hezbollah dictator died along with several of his top commanders and some Iranian military officers when an Israeli airstrike took out his bunker. A week before that, hundreds of Hezbollah leaders were killed or disabled when their pagers and portable radios exploded.
The first statement from the new “operations room of the Islamic Resistance” claimed its fighters were “watching and listening” to Israeli forces, and were prepared to strike when the enemy least expected it.
Sources within the terrorist organization told Reuters they still have stockpiles of precision-guided missiles that have never been used on the battlefield, and they still hope to use them to inflict significant casualties against Israeli ground forces. These sources also said Hezbollah still has terror tunnels the Israelis have not uncovered.
Hezbollah successfully targeted the dining hall of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base south of Haifa with a drone on Sunday, killing four trainee soldiers and injuring 21.
Israeli ground forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza city of Rafah on Wednesday, dealing another blow to the morale of allied terrorist gangs like Hezbollah.