Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah during his speech. Screengrab, via Al-Manar TV.
Hezbollah has been firing heavy rockets at Israeli military sites and flying reconnaissance drones over northern Israel, the group’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah revealed during a televised speech on November 11.
The speech, which was meant to commemorate Hezbollah’s Martyr’s Day, was the second by Nasrallah since clashes started on the Lebanese-Israeli border after the war in the Gaza Strip broke out.
“Last week saw an improvement in operations, both quantitatively and qualitatively. For instance, we deployed the Burkan [Volcano] missile carrying a payload between 300 kilograms and 500 kilograms. Imagine half a ton of explosives falling on the enemy’s head,” Nasrallah said. “We also improved in terms of depth of reach, deploying drones and Katyusha rockets.”
According to Nasrallah, “there are other operations that we have not revealed, such as surveillance drones into occupied Palestine, especially over Haifa.”
“Some of these drones return with images, others do not, but they exhaust the Iron Dome and Patriot missiles of the enemy,” the leader said.
Nasrallah also confirmed during the speech that the seven fighters mourned by Hezbollah on November 10 were killed on Syrian territory in an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military said that the strike was carried out in response to a drone attack that targeted Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat a day earlier. Nasrallah praised the attack and talked about its importance. However, he didn’t claim responsibility or confirm that the drone was launched from Syria.
Hezbollah has already launched two attacks with suicide drones against Israeli military sites on the border. Both attacks, which took place on November 2 and 10, were successful. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the last attack.
On November 11, Hezbollah announced eight attacks against Israel. The attacks targeted six military sites, three deployment points, an armored personnel carrier and two gatherings of infantry. The group said that the attacks were carried out “in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance.”
Israel responded with a series of strikes on southern Lebanon. The Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Resistance Regiments mourned one of their fighters.
As of November 11, the clashes on the Lebanese front have claimed the lives of nine Israelis -six soldiers and three civilians-, 67 fighters of Hezbollah, two fighters from the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, one fighter from the Lebanese Resistance Regiments, seven Palestinian fighters -three from the Hamas Movement and four from the Islamic Jihad- and eleven Lebanese civilians -two shepherds, a teenager, three elderly, three children and two journalists-.
