Hezbollah Official Brags: Terror Group ‘Stronger than Ever’ after Ceasefire

Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa (Youtube/Screenshot) (Youtube/Screenshot)

US envoy says Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon ‘will continue until all Israeli forces are out of Lebanon completely.’

By Ben Rappaport, United with Israel and JNS

A top Hezbollah official claimed on Sunday that the terror group is now “stronger than before.”

Wafiq Safa, the Hezbollah official responsible for the terror group’s connections to formal Lebanese institutions, is the brother-in-law of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. He spoke from the crater formed during Nasrallah’s assassination, boasting that “Hezbollah was not defeated, and Hezbollah will not be defeated,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

“Hezbollah, as His Eminence Sayyed [Hassan Nasrallah] said, was created with victory imprinted on its forehead.”

He added that “Hezbollah’s resolve is stronger than iron… because it derives its strength from Allah,” and that “the Israeli army and Israeli missiles were unable to break [Hezbollah]…

“For those who are deluded that Hezbollah has become weak, for those who are deluded that Hezbollah is not what it was, I say that Hezbollah is stronger than it was.”

He claimed the IDF’s failure to push further into Lebanon was proof that Israel had failed, saying that Hezbollah had successfully brought about “a feeling of lack of security across Israel” and had “forced” the ceasefire agreement on Israel rather than vice versa.

On Monday, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told reporters during a visit to Beirut that Israeli forces began withdrawing from the south Lebanon border town of Naqura, where UNIFIL has based its headquarters since 1978.

“The Israeli military started its withdrawal from Naqura … and back into Israel proper today, south of the Blue Line,” Hochstein said, according to AFP, referring to the U.N.-demarcated border between Lebanon and Israel.

“These withdrawals will continue until all Israeli forces are out of Lebanon completely and as the Lebanese army continues to deploy into the south and all the way to the Blue Line,” he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Sunday that if the Iranian-backed terrorist organization refuses to withdraw from southern Lebanon in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese government, the deal will be void.

“[T]he first condition for the implementation of the agreement is the complete withdrawal of the Hezbollah terror organization beyond the Litani River, the dismantling of all weapons, and the [removal] of the terror infrastructure in the area by the Lebanese army, something that hasn’t happened yet,” Katz said.

According to the agreement, Israeli forces would gradually withdraw over 60 days from southern Lebanon, where they have been operating since early October. They reached as far as north as the Litani River for the first time since 2000.

As the IDF withdraws, Lebanese army forces are to enter these areas and ensure that Hezbollah retreats north of the Litani, located some 18 miles north of the border with Israel.

Israel has carried out several strikes in southern Lebanon since the deal was signed to counter Hezbollah violations of the agreement.

“The IDF continues to be committed to the understandings regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon, is deployed in southern Lebanon, and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” the IDF said.