Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denied Sunday that the Israeli military destroyed thousands of the group's rocket launchers. "Talk about how the resistance (Hezbollah) was going to launch 8,000 or 6,000 rockets and drones and that (Israel) thwarted this... are false claims", Nasrallah said in a televised speech, adding that only "dozens of rocket launchers" were destroyed.
The IDF said early on Sunday that it launched a preemptive strike on Hezbollah targets including rocket launchers that were loaded and prepared to launch against strategic targets in Israel.
Nasrallah said in his speech that the Iran-backed terror group launched 340 rockets to IDF bases in northern Israel and then launched dozens of drones at targets deep inside Israeli territory. He said a main target of his attack was the Intelligence base north of Tel Aviv.
"According to our information, a number of our drones reached their target, but our enemy was being discrete, he said. "Time will tell what had transpired."
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Israel strikes S. Lebanon, Hezbollah attacks north on Sunday
(Photo: Aziz Taher / Reuters )
The Hezbollah leader said his group was prepared to respond to the IDF killing of his senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month, but delayed its action to allow for coordination with the members of the Iran Axis, to decide whether to attack together or allow each group to act independently.
"Our goal was to stop the war in Gaza," he said adding that a rash response while the U.S. and Israel were on full alert, would have failed."
He said rockets were fired first to allow drones to infiltrate the border and insisted that none of the drone attacks were thwarted in the Israeli strike in the pre-dawn hours. "All the drones launched from the Beqaa Valley area crossed the border and hit their targets," Nasrallah said adding that he did not intend to use precise missiles in this attack and that those would be used at a later date.
The terror group chief said he decided on the attack despite threats and criticism expressed from inside Lebanon as well. "Our action today may assist the Palestinian and Arab factions negotiating in Doha with a clear message to our enemy and the Americans. Any attempt to silence the fronts supporting Gaza, would fail."