Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem told a Lebanese TV interviewer on Tuesday that the Hamas atrocities of October 7, in which over 1,200 Israeli civilians were raped, tortured, murdered, and abducted, was a “great and marvelous” operation that demonstrated the “courage, audacity, and righteousness” of the Palestinian people.
Qassem described the atrocities, which Hamas and its supporters call “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” as an “exceptional operation which is unprecedented since the establishment of the Zionist regime.”
“It planted the seeds which would lead to the regression and downfall of the regime, since it uncovered that the Israeli security capabilities are extremely weak. The Israeli army is very weak. And the politicians know nothing and cannot envision the future,” he said.
Qassem said all branches of the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. “resistance” across the Middle East should take inspiration from the “great success” of the 10/7 attack, and called on all of them to support Hamas.
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“If any branch or any faction in the resistance alliance is victorious, this means that all the resistance in the region has been victorious,” he declared.
Qassem was coy about Hezbollah’s minimal participation in the Gaza war. The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization and political party has launched its usual random rocket attacks at Israeli civilian targets, but it has resisted making a full commitment to defending Hamas. Longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave a remarkably restrained speech on Friday that seemed listless and cautious to many observers, especially Hamas supporters who expected Nasrallah to declare war on Israel.
Qassem claimed Hezbollah was doing all that was necessary to help the “resistance” and said the most important thing Hamas defenders could do to protect the Palestinian terrorist gang from Israeli retaliation was push for a ceasefire.
Qassem gave an interview to the BBC on Wednesday in which he struck a very different tone from his triumphalist bragging about a glorious Hamas operation in the Lebanese interview – a common media manipulation tactic among Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
When speaking to British rather than Lebanese reporters, Qassem suddenly stopped bragging about 10/7 as a glorious victory for the resistance. He did not mention the Hamas atrocities at all, portraying the Israeli operation in Gaza as unprovoked “aggression,” until the BBC interviewer reminded him that Hamas started the war by murdering Israeli civilians. At that point, Qassem fell back on the usual terrorist boilerplate that Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian lands” justifies anything and everything the “resistance” does.
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Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart NewsWhen Qassem raved about unsubstantiated claims of Israel killing Gaza civilians, the BBC reminded him that Hamas terrorists proudly recorded and uploaded their own blood-curdling atrocities.
“Why don’t we look at what Israel has done inside Gaza? They kill civilians and demolish homes,” Qassem whined, all traces of the chest-thumping resistance warrior from the Lebanese interview evaporating.
Pressed further by the BBC, Qassem did insist the Hamas atrocities produced a “great result for the Palestinian resistance,” but only because Hamas and its supporters were doing a great job of spinning the Israeli response as a worse crime than the wanton rape of women and decapitation of children.
The deputy chief of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, delivers a speech during a rally in Beirut on October 13, 2023, as thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of several Middle East capitals in support of Palestinians amid Israeli air strikes on Gaza in reprisal for a surprise Hamas attack. (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)
“The massacres committed by Israel are mobilizing the Palestinians more and more to cling to their land,” he claimed. (In fact, heavily armed Hamas thugs threatening to kill them if they flee are doing quite a bit to convince Gaza civilians to “cling to their land.”)
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Israel Defense ForcesThe BBC interpreted Qassem’s remarks as another threat of war against Israel, noting that Hezbollah is the largest, best-trained, and most lavishly funded of Iran’s proxy forces in the region. Hezbollah’s missile inventory is a particular concern, being much larger and more powerful than armaments of Hamas.
Qassem tacitly admitted Hezbollah is not well-positioned for war with Israel at the moment, with Lebanon in the grip of multiple economic and political crises, but he strove to keep the threat alive.
“It’s the right of any Lebanese to be afraid of war. That’s normal. Nobody likes war. Tell the Israeli entity to stop the aggression, so the battles do not expand,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.
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