Hezbollah defending southern Lebanon against Israeli aggression: Nasrallah
The secretary general of Hezbollah says fighters from the Lebanese resistance movement have defended the southern sector of Lebanon against Israel’s acts of aggression.
Addressing an election campaign ceremony via a televised speech broadcast live from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Saturday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah described the city, located about 80 kilometers south of the capital Beirut, as one of the basic strongholds of the anti-Israel resistance front.
He added that the Israeli military launched the 1996 aggression against Lebanon by striking the military command of Hezbollah.
“The Zionist air raid at the time failed to target late Hezbollah military commander Mustafa Badreddine,” Nasrallah pointed out.
The Hezbollah chief further noted that Israel’s aggressive policies towards Lebanon started just a year after its creation in the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948, dismissing allegations that Tel Aviv’s hostilities began after the formation of Palestinian resistance movements.
“In 1960s, [prominent Shia cleric] Imam Musa al-Sadr used to ask the Lebanese government to defend southern cities and towns against Israeli aggressions. His pleas, however, went unanswered as authorities did not take any actions,” Nasrallah underlined.
He added, “Because of the government’s apathy, Imam Musa al-Sadr established a popular resistance movement in southern Lebanon to confront the Zionist enemy.”