Lebanese Hezbollah supporters ready for open conflict

Hamas number 2 was killed Tuesday in Beirut, by a strike attributed to Israel. The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah renewed his threats against the Jewish state in a speech Wednesday evening but is not engaging fighters for the moment.

The moment Hassan Nasrallah appears on the giant screen, the thousands of activists who have come to listen to him cheer him. The leader of Hezbollah spoke in Lebanon on the evening of Wednesday January 3, the day after an attack attributed to Israel which killed Hamas number 2 in Beirut. Since October 7 and the start of the war between the Jewish state and Hamas, the Lebanese militia has threatened to open a new front. Tension rose further with this televised speech in which Hassan Nasrallah reiterated his threats against Israel.

For more than an hour, the leader of Hezbollah spoke in front of his most fervent supporters. Among them, Youssef, 60, with a militia flag on his shoulders: “We are for the war because it is a just war, that of good against evil. And we must continue until we wipe Israel off the map”.

For the moment, Hassan Nasrallah is careful not to engage his fighters in open conflict with Israel, despite the assassination of Hamas number 2 in Beirut on Tuesday January 2. The warlord procrastinates, when activists like Ali, 27, demand reprisals. “Those who are attacked are Hamas, he said. This does not directly concern Lebanon. But as it happened on our territory, we have a duty to defend and support them.”.

Nejma came with her 5 year old son. She hopes that all Lebanese will soon take up arms alongside Hamas.

“The children of Gaza are our children.”

Nejma, Hezbollah activist

at franceinfo

“My son is like the children of Gaza. And we are raising a new generation of fighters to defeat Israel”, she believes. These activists, the most radical, will return on Friday January 5 for a new speech by their leader Hassan Nasrallah, with the hope that he will finally fully commit to the war against Israel.