Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that Israel miscalculated by killing party commander Samir Qantar in Syria last week, adding that retaliation for his death was inevitable whatever the consequences.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking in a ceremony to mark a week since Qantar's killing, said Israelis should brace themselves for a response either inside Israel or outside.
“The response is coming no matter what... We cannot forgive the shedding of our fighters’ blood by the Israelis," he stressed.
Hezbollah chief added that Israel had believed that eliminating such an important target is worth the adventure and the sacrifice. It did not know the importance of Qantar to Hezbollah.
On another note, he called upon the Palestinian people not to wait for an Islamic military alliance or an international coalition to combat terrorism.
Separately, Nasrallah noted that “any occupying power will fade away with time,” referring by that to Israel.
“Any state that does not depend on its own strength such as Israel, but resorts to other nations will definitely vanish,” he stated.
Nasrallah emphasized that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exerted his best endeavors to obtain an international recognition of the annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel under the pretext of the Syrian conflict.
He also praised Qantar for being a courageous and dedicated member of the party, saying that Hezbollah needed more men like him.
Nasrallah went on to commend the late commander for his steadfastness during the 30 years he spent in an Israeli prison, saying he did not compromise or break, but rather left insistent on joining Hezbollah and continuing to carry out attacks against Israeli occupation.
Qantar was jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid in Israel that killed four people when he was a member of a Palestinian militant group.
He was repatriated to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, which he then joined.
Nasrallah for the first time acknowledged that Qantar had played a key role in creating a "popular resistance" in Syria against what he said were Israeli designs on the Syrian Golan Heights.
Hezbollah is fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war. Syrian state media said Qantar was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Qantar's growing military role in the strategic area had unnerved Israel, Nasrallah said.
Israel seized part of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it later.
REUTERS/LBCI
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