WANA (Aug 25) – The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, described the “Arbaeen Day” operation as a response to the assassination of Commander Fouad Shukur, stating that the operation targeted key military and intelligence bases of the Zionist regime.

 

Nasrallah stated, “As everyone knows, a few weeks ago, the occupying regime crossed all red lines, attacking Beirut’s southern suburb (Dahiyeh), killing civilians, women, and children, as well as our commander, Fouad Shukur. Naturally, the Resistance was committed to responding.”

 

The Hezbollah leader emphasized, “We call the large-scale Hezbollah operation carried out today against the Zionist enemy the ‘Arbaeen Operation,’ and we stress that it is the Israeli enemy that has brought the situation in Lebanon and the front to this level of tension.”

 

Three Principles Guided the Operation

Nasrallah explained the delay in responding to the Zionist regime, saying, “The delay was due to the vigilance of the U.S. and Israel, and this delay was in itself a form of punishment for the enemy. A hasty response during the height of Israeli and American alertness could have resulted in failure. We didn’t announce that we were waiting; in fact, we were giving negotiations a chance, as our real goal is to prevent aggression against our people in Gaza. We gave enough time for negotiations, being sure that the U.S. and Israeli positions were hypocritical. Our main objective is to stop the aggression against Gaza, and we gave ample time, but it became clear that Netanyahu had new conditions, and all of this was just stalling.”

 

Nasrallah added, “Another reason for the delay was the need for time and consultation on whether the response should come through the Resistance Axis or alone. After deliberation, given the considerations that have emerged over time, we decided to carry out our operation independently.”

 

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah stated, “The world knows that the Americans can compel Netanyahu to stop the aggression against Gaza, and while the enemy remains on high alert, delaying our response no longer serves us. We established principles for our response: it should not target civilians, as we understand the presence of civilian martyrs in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Therefore, we decided that the target should be military, not civilian or infrastructural. Our decision was to target military objectives close to Tel Aviv to maintain the deterrence equation and prevent the enemy from crossing red lines.”

 

Nasrallah continued, “We identified a primary target for the operation deep within Israel, which was the ‘Glilot’ base. This base belongs to Israel’s Military Intelligence Service, known as ‘Aman,’ where the enemy’s Unit 8200 is stationed. The Glilot base is located 110 kilometers from Lebanon’s borders and 1,500 meters from Tel Aviv’s perimeter.”

 

Nasrallah emphasized, “Everything we planned for this operation has been executed as intended. Recently, we cleared all the valleys of precision and ballistic missiles, and what the enemy bombed today were empty valleys; there were no ballistic missile depots in them. The enemy’s claims of targeting ballistic missiles prepared to strike Tel Aviv are false.”

 

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also noted, “We stated that today’s response is initial and preliminary, and if the result of the operation is insufficient for us, we will decide what to do next.”