Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attack earlier this month displayed the weakness of the Israel Defense Forces, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday.
After the Lebanese terrorist organization fired several rockets at an IDF vehicle near the Israel-Lebanon border on Sept. 1, Israeli news media showed footage of what appeared to be two wounded soldiers being evacuated by helicopter to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. The footage later turned out to have been a decoy operation designed to fool Hezbollah and buy time for the IDF to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
During a speech commemorating a Shi’ite religious festival, Nasrallah said the deception proved Israel’s weakness and encouraged Hezbollah to strike more Israeli targets in the future.
“The legendary and invincible [IDF] has turned into a Hollywood army, acting in movies, because it has become weak, debilitated, feeble and cowardly,” said Nasrallah.
“You are saying to us: ‘Next time, don’t strike one military vehicle and don’t strike only in one place. Instead, hit more than one military vehicle and hit more than one place.’ We are not going to see anymore Hollywood films,” he added.
Immediately following the Sept. 1 attack, the terrorist organization boasted that several Israeli soldiers had been killed, having apparently been taken in by the IDF’s deception.
Nasrallah has vowed to destroy Israel and “American hegemony and presence in our region” through a war between Israel and Iranian proxies. As Iran deepens its military capabilities through its proxies in Lebanon and Syria, Israel has also expressed its readiness to do anything necessary to undermine Hezbollah’s efforts.