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SECURITY: Hezbollah Strikes Defiant Tone Amid Intensifying Conflict In Lebanon

SECURITY

Wires carrying comments from Hezbollah Deputy Chief Naim Qassam, striking a defiant tone despite an expansion of Israel's war in Lebanon. This morning the IDF announced the killing of another high-ranking Hezbollah official, Sohil Hossein Hosseini, in Beirut and deployed a fourth ground division across the border, likely taking the number of IDF troops in Lebanon to over 15,000. 

  • Qassam: "Our capabilities are intact, Israel's claim it hit our capabilities is a 'delusion'... our operations have increased in recent days." 
  • Addressing concerns that Israel's surgical strikes may have decapitated the group's senior leadership, Qassam says: "No positions are vacant, all roles are filled... Hezbollah's command and control are organized with precision... We have moved beyond the painful blows."
  • Qassam indicates Hezbollah is prepared for a long-term fight: "There is constant coordination between the various units and forces in the field... The only solution for us to resist, persist... The ground clashes in the south began seven days ago, and the Israelis have yet to advance... We want to clash with the Israelis."
  • The New York Times notes: "At least 2,083 people have now been killed in Lebanon and nearly 10,000 wounded since the war began last October... most of those over the last three weeks."
  • The region remains braced for an Israeli response to last week's Iranian ballistic missile attack. An Israeli strike could hit strategic military and intelligence sites, considered on the low end of an escalation; or hit Iranian energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, with the latter considered the most escalatory and likely beyond Israel's current capacity without US operational support. 
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Wires carrying comments from Hezbollah Deputy Chief Naim Qassam, striking a defiant tone despite an expansion of Israel's war in Lebanon. This morning the IDF announced the killing of another high-ranking Hezbollah official, Sohil Hossein Hosseini, in Beirut and deployed a fourth ground division across the border, likely taking the number of IDF troops in Lebanon to over 15,000. 

  • Qassam: "Our capabilities are intact, Israel's claim it hit our capabilities is a 'delusion'... our operations have increased in recent days." 
  • Addressing concerns that Israel's surgical strikes may have decapitated the group's senior leadership, Qassam says: "No positions are vacant, all roles are filled... Hezbollah's command and control are organized with precision... We have moved beyond the painful blows."
  • Qassam indicates Hezbollah is prepared for a long-term fight: "There is constant coordination between the various units and forces in the field... The only solution for us to resist, persist... The ground clashes in the south began seven days ago, and the Israelis have yet to advance... We want to clash with the Israelis."
  • The New York Times notes: "At least 2,083 people have now been killed in Lebanon and nearly 10,000 wounded since the war began last October... most of those over the last three weeks."
  • The region remains braced for an Israeli response to last week's Iranian ballistic missile attack. An Israeli strike could hit strategic military and intelligence sites, considered on the low end of an escalation; or hit Iranian energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, with the latter considered the most escalatory and likely beyond Israel's current capacity without US operational support.