Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem says 'ready and prepared' to fight Israel

Group's leadership spoke publicly for the first time following the assassination of chief Nasrallah

Hezbollah's deputy chief Naim Qassem delivering a speech from an undisclosed location on September 30, 2024. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Hezbollah “is ready and prepared for a ground invasion” by Israel, said Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the Lebanese group, in a brief public address to the Lebanese nation on Monday.

It was the first time that a member of Hezbollah’s leadership spoke publicly following the assassination of the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.

“The resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” Mr Qassem said. "We are confident that the Israeli enemy will not achieve its goals, and we will emerge victorious from this battle."

The speech was aimed to reassure supporters that the group was not crippled, its military capabilities remained intact, and that it would persist in fighting Israel.

“All the great sacrifices we have gone through – the pagers, the martyrdom of our leaders, and the martyrdom of the Secretary-General – would have shaken any armies, peoples, and organisations, but we continued,” he said. "We persist."

“The enemy is working in two directions: one is to strike our personnel and military capabilities, and second to strike villages, cities and civilians to create a rift between the resistance and its people,” Mr Qassem warned.

Mr Qassem reassured supporters that Hezbollah would “choose a secretary-general for the party at the earliest opportunity”, and would “build alternative cadres” within its command structure in accordance with an organisational structure established by the late leader Nasrallah, who had been threatened with assassination by Israel for at least the last two decades.

The deputy leader said they are confident that the Israeli enemy will not achieve its goals, and that Hezbollah will emerge victorious from this battle.

“What [Israeli] media says, that they have struck most of the medium and long-range capabilities, is a dream that they have not reached”.