Hezbollah leader says more Israelis will be displaced as it extends its rocket fire
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah’s acting leader said Tuesday that even more Israelis will be displaced as the militant group extends its rocket fire deeper into Israel, in a defiant televised statement marking the anniversary of fighting that escalated into war last month.
In a defiant televised statement, acting leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said Hezbollah’s capabilities are still intact despite weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes and that it has replaced senior commanders killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” Kassem said. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines.”
He said Hezbollah’s top leadership was directing the war and that the commanders slain by Israel have been replaced, saying “we have no vacant posts.”
He said that Hezbollah will name a new leader to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in an underground base in Beirut last month, “but the circumstances are difficult because of the war.”