Beirut (CNN) –– Hezbollah is on the defensive. The first sign of this was the absence of a public gathering – typically attended by high-level party officials and supporters – to see the leader of the fighting group, Hassan Nasrallah, deliver a televised speech on Thursday.
The second sign was that Nasrallah’s speech – his first since two waves of attacks detonated thousands of Hezbollah wireless devices earlier this week – was most likely recorded in advance.
The leader of the powerful fighting group has not given a speech in person since the start of Lebanon’s last all-out war with Israel in 2006, but he often goes out of his way to demonstrate that his broadcasts are broadcast live. In his speech last month, for example, Nasrallah referenced two sonic booms caused by Israeli planes that had broken the sound barrier over Beirut. This occurred in the seconds before the start of his speech.
Thursday’s speech was billed as a live broadcast, but the audience had doubts 20 minutes in, when Israel dropped flares on the Lebanese capital and caused windows to shake with a new wave of sonic booms. The roar echoed throughout the city, but the Beirut-based militant leader did not flinch or make reference to the incident during his speech.
The Israeli warplanes appeared intended to underscore one of the achievements of Tuesday and Wednesday’s attacks on Hezbollah’s wireless devices: that the group had been forced even further underground.
“Without a doubt, we have suffered a severe blow,” Nasrallah said in his speech on Thursday. “It is unprecedented in the history of the resistance in Lebanon, at least, not in the history of Lebanon, and it may be unprecedented in the history of the conflict with the Israeli enemy in the entire region.”
This week, thousands of small explosions devastated the pockets and homes of Hezbollah members, on Tuesday against pagers and on Wednesday against walkie talkies; In total, the explosions killed at least 37 people, including some children, and injured nearly 3,000. The attack, dystopian in its style and scale, took by surprise the group that had turned to analog technologies after giving up cell phones to avoid Israeli infiltration.
Nasrallah promised a “reckoning” but did not give many details. The attack “will be met with a reckoning and just punishment, in the way they expect and in the way they don’t expect as well,” he said.
But he continued in an unmistakably moderate tone: “However, because this battle was carried out by invisible faces, you must allow me to change my style,” he said.
“The moment of truth will come. Its nature, its scope, when and where… that is something we definitely keep to ourselves,” he added. “Within the most closed circle, even within ourselves, because we are in the most precise, sensitive and deeply significant part of the battle.”
Nasrallah sought to reinforce the sober narrative, praising what he described as strategic gains from nearly a year of clashes with Israeli forces on the Lebanese-Israeli border. He also vowed to continue attacking Israeli positions until Israel’s offensive in Gaza ends.
“We have been saying this for 11 months, we may be repeating ourselves, but this statement comes after these two great blows, after all these martyrs, wounds and pain,” Nasrallah said. “I say it clearly: no matter the sacrifices, the consequences or the future possibilities, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting Gaza.”
In response to Israeli threats to create a security zone on Lebanon’s southern border, Nasrallah adopted a defiant tone, “welcoming” Israeli troops to territory where he said Hezbollah fighters would quickly seize the opportunity to attack them. .
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, people continue to recover from attacks that overwhelmed hospitals with injured people, mostly with deep wounds to their eyes and faces.
Hezbollah is likely to retreat further into the shadows and regroup around its methods. During the 2006 war, the fighting group’s Al-Manar television channel was on air during the 34 days of the conflict, despite Israel’s harsh bombing campaign.
Live broadcasts have long been hailed by Hezbollah as a symbol of defiance against the long arm of Israeli spyware, and its ability to continue broadcasting against all odds has been a source of pride for the group, giving it gives a mythical quality among his Lebanese voters and even among some of his detractors.
But this week’s attacks on wireless devices have broken that aura. Hezbollah – whose name literally means Party of God – has been shaken and forced to confront the new reality that it is more exposed than it ever thought it was.
