Hezbollah: Israeli response to kidnapped soldiers was surprising
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
The magnitude of the Israeli response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers took the Lebanese militant group by surprise, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said in an interview published on Saturday.
Qassem told an-Nahar daily that Hezbollah had expected an Israeli attack at some stage as part of a joint plan with the United States but it had no indication it would come in July.
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"We were expecting the Israelis would respond at the most by bombing for a day or two or some limited attacks or targeting certain places, such that it would not go beyond three days and some limited damage," he said.
According to the Hezbollah spokesman, some 1,200 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, 900,000 others lost their homes and billions of dollars in damage was caused.
Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets every day at civilian targets throughout the north for around a month during the course of the war, causing hundreds of Israeli casualties and extensive damage.
Qassem said: "Frankly we were surprised by the size (of the Israeli response) and by this serious attack."
Two days after the war began, Hezbollah learned that Israel and the United States were planning an attack in September or October. U.S. media have also said the United States was enthusiastic about Israeli plans to strike at Hezbollah.
"Israel was not ready. In fact it wanted to prepare for two or three months more, but American pressure on one side and the Israeli desire to achieve a success on the other ... were factors which made them rush into battle," Qassem said.
The Hezbollah official said the guerrilla group would coordinate with the Lebanese army as it moves into parts of south Lebanon dominated by Hezbollah.
But Hezbollah will not give up the concept of resistance against Israel, on the grounds that Israel continues to occupy the Shebaa farms region, holds Lebanese prisoners and overflies Lebanese territory almost every day.
"The justifications for ending it (resistance) are not yet there. When we agree on a defence plan to confront Israel, defining the job of the resistance, the army and the Lebanese people, then we will see what the rules and roles are," he said.
The Shebaa Farms is a small patch of land claimed by Lebanon, but occupied by Israel since it captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The United Nations deems the territory Syrian until such time as Syria cedes it to Lebanon.
Israel wants the Lebanese army and a strengthened UN peace force to disarm Hezbollah and keep it away from the Israeli border, but Qassem said disarmament was an internal Lebanese matter and Hezbollah fighters will stay in their villages.
The army and the UN would not go searching for arms but would stop people carrying them in public, Qassem said. |
