Hizballah top dog: ‘Hizballah won by surviving’

Qassem said Hizbullah had declared the war a victory because Hizbullah survived. He said Hizbullah operatives injured in the pager attack were happy and back at work, while parents who lost their children in the war were happy they were martyred – and that they still have other children alive.

Qassem said martyrdom is the “highest badge of honor.” He started crying when he talked about how Nasrallah, who was assassinated in September 2024, is missed, but he said it wasn’t because he was gone – rather, because he doesn’t know how someone like him could ever be compensated for.

Naim Qassem: “On October 7, [2023] – the day of the Al-Aqsa Flood – we learned about this ‘flood’ like the rest of the world did.

“The brothers in the Hamas leadership in [Gaza] carried out this great, influential, and revolutionary step, which changed the situation in the region, but we were not privy to it. I remember that half an hour after the Al-Aqsa Flood began, Secretary-General Hassan [Nasrallah] received a message from Gaza saying that they started the Al-Aqsa Flood in Palestine, and they would like to see what Hizbullah could do, and they expressed hope that Hizbullah would start an all-out war, because this would be an exceptional war with exceptional results.

“First, we had to discuss this decision. This is not a decision you make in 15-30 minutes. Nasrallah’s initial idea was to give the order, the next day, to open fire at the Shebaa Farms. The idea was that the Shebaa Farms are occupied Lebanese soil. Israel would definitely retaliate, and we would retaliate back to a wider extent, and this would buy us time to discuss the extent [of our involvement], and what we can do. Our Shura Council convened and decided that we would engage in a war of support. Why support and not an all-out war? Because in an all-out war, you need to prepare for the expected consequences. We were not prepared, so we had to engage in this limited support operation, and wait for the developments in the first week or two, so that we would be able to weigh our options more clearly.

“After 2-3 weeks on this path of support, we at the Shura Council, headed by Secretary-General Nasrallah, became determined that we must wage war of support, not an all-out war. The reason was that this support would accomplish the required goals, without resorting to an all-out war, because if we waged an all-out war, there would be destruction, the Americans would intervene, and things would grow to a larger scale, without accomplishing the desired goals.

[…]

“Listen to what people who were injured in the pager attack have to say. They say unbelievable things, brother. Their morale and spirits are high and some of them continue to work… Listen to what our own people are saying, how united they are. They are happy when they talk about the martyrdom of their children. They say: ‘Three are gone, but I still have two children.’ ‘One is dead, but I have another one.’

[…]

“We immediately declared that Hizbullah had won. Some people criticized us for saying this, but they did not listen to the kind of victory we had. We would always connect the victory to something else. We would say: ‘Hizbullah won by surviving.’

[…]

“Victory does not always mean winning militarily. We won by surviving.

[…]

“For us, martyrdom is the highest badge of honor, brother. [Nasrallah] won the highest badge of honor. This is how we see it. But we lost. We miss him. I am not crying because he is gone. No. He is happy, in a higher place. He paved a path that continues. I am crying because how can we compensate for his capabilities, his positions, his rhetoric, his sacrifices, his impetus. But that’s how life is.”