Hezbollah-linked Lebanese lawmaker: Israel preparing to wage war on us

Mohammad Raad says terror group readying to battle Jewish state, which ‘should expect to become paralyzed’

A Lebanese lawmaker affiliated with Hezbollah said on Sunday that Israel was preparing to wage war against the terror group. But Mohammad Raad, who leads Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said the group was ready to battle the Jewish state, according to Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV.

“The enemy is preparing to launch a war on us,” he said during a graduation ceremony in southern Lebanon, while affirming “the resistance’s readiness to confront it with our men, society, capabilities and everything we have prepared for it,” the TV report said.

Hezbollah and Israel last fought a deadly war in 2006.

Raad added that Israel would be “delusional to think that it can defeat our society,” adding that the Jewish state “should expect to become paralyzed.”

Mohammad Raad, a Lebanese lawmaker affiliated with the Hezbollah terror group, speaking to al-Mayadeen TV. (Screenshot: al-Mayadeen TV)

The Trump administration sanctioned Raad in July under a US executive order that targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism.

Later on Sunday, Raad told al-Mayadeen TV that Hezbollah would be “able to enter the Galilee, if such a move were required.”

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah made a similar comment in an interview in January.

“Part of our plan for the next war is to enter the Galilee, a part of our plan that we are capable of, God willing. The important thing is that we have this capability and we have had it for years,” he told al-Mayadeen at the time.