Hezbollah leader says more Israelis will be displaced as it extends its rocket fire

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.

Sheikh Naim Kassem, the acting leader of Hezbollah, said its military capabilities are still intact and that it has replaced all of its senior commanders after weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon, including targeted strikes that killed much of its top command in a matter of days.

He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.

The Israeli military says it has struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets, dismantled militant infrastructure along the border and killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. There was no way to independently confirm battlefield claims made by either side.

“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. “We have no vacant posts,” he added.

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.”

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ surprise attack from Gaza into Israel ignited the war. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran, and Hezbollah says its attacks are aimed at aiding the Palestinians.

The Lebanese militant group has said it will stop the attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but months of diplomatic efforts on that front have repeatedly stalled.

Israel has inflicted a punishing wave of blows against Hezbollah in recent weeks and says it will keep fighting until tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north.

The fighting, which escalated in mid-September, has displaced over 1 million Lebanese.