“After 45 days of intense fighting, Israel has failed to occupy even a single Lebanese village,” Afif said during a press conference held in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in the south of the country’s capital Beirut on Monday.
He stressed that it was rather Hezbollah fighters’ determination and their intimate knowledge of the land that were among the decisive elements on the battlefield.
He also addressed claims by the Israeli regime’s former minister for military affairs, Yoav Gallant, about alleged depletion of Hezbollah’s missile stockpiles.
“Our missile stockpiles are complete in the same way that they were on the first day [of the struggle against the Israeli regime],” the official asserted, citing the movement’s continued firing of the projectiles towards the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa in the occupied Palestinian territories as proof of his assertion.
“Hezbollah continues to increase its missile stockpiles, both in quantity and quality,” he stated, and affirmed that the movement’s fighters on the frontlines “have enough weapons and supplies for a prolonged war on all fronts.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, the official insisted that the movement “does not accept defeat”.
“Our concept of victory comprises prevention of realization of the enemy’s political and military goals,” he said, adding that it was rather refusal to resist that would translate into defeat for the group.
“The realities of the battlefield are solely in their (the resistance fighters’) hands,” Afif stated, and noted that “these will ultimately decide the political outcome and strategy”.
The fate of the entire West Asia region would also be determined by the perseverance and combat efforts of the resistance’s fighters, the official remarked.
He, meanwhile, reflected on the emergence of Hezbollah, calling it “a natural response to occupation”.
In conclusion, the official asserted that the Israeli regime had suffered defeat across the entire world and the international public opinion.
He cited the existing international solidarity with the Palestinian cause as a case in point, saying the solidarity was recently witnessed by the popular confrontation that took place in the face of anti-Palestinian violence waged by Israeli thugs in the Dutch capital Amsterdam.
Israel launched a massive air campaign in late September in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation in a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the group since the start of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.
More than 3,000 people have been killed and over 13,500 injured in Israeli aggression since last October, according to Lebanese health authorities.
Israel expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon in early October.
