Hezbollah is focused on making a “comprehensive assessment” of its war with Israel and the “support front” it opened in Lebanon in solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas movement, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Iran-backed party is also continuing the investigation into the pager explosions and preparing the funeral of its slain Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and head of its executive council Hashem Safieddine, who were assassinated by Israel during the war.
Hezbollah is now “rearranging its internal affairs and completing the restructuring of its political and organizational departments to fill the vacuum caused by the martyrdom of dozens of its political, military and administrative figures during the war,” they added.
In its assessment, the party will seek to determine where it was hit the strongest and where it went wrong in wake of the developments that have taken place in Lebanon, the ousting of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and the end of the “unity of arenas” policy that was pursued by Iran in the region. Iran’s influence in the region has waned and it has now been forced to remain within its own borders, explained the sources.
Hezbollah has acknowledged that by launching the “support front for Gaza, it has been dealt a crushing blow with the assassination of Nasrallah, Safieddine and senior military leaders,” they went on to say.
Israel’s pager attack left dozens of Hezbollah members dead and thousands injured. The probe in the attack will not cease until the truth is revealed and until the individual responsible for buying the pagers is found, they added.
Preparations are also underway for Nasrallah and Safieddine’s burials. A single funeral will be held for both figures. Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanoun in the Tyre district, according to his wishes.
Nasrallah will be buried in a property owned by the party along the old airport road. The area will become a shrine for the slain Hezbollah leader, said the sources.
Furthermore, the party is awaiting the end of the ceasefire deadline with Israel so that it can go ahead and remove the rubble in areas struck by Israel so that it can determine the fate of over 500 of its members.
The removal of the rubble will allow the party to identify remains, retrieve corpses and determine which members remain missing and if they have been captured by Israel, the sources revealed.
Hezbollah has been exercising the highest degree of restraint against Israel’s attempts to lure it to war as it continues its provocations and violations of the ceasefire by destroying houses and preventing residents from returning to their homes in areas still under its control, stated the sources.
The party is leaving it up to parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the army command to address the violations, they said.
