Israeli ex-official urges Hezbollah to halt attacks or face more destruction

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group should halt cross-border attacks in order to prevent matters from getting worse, the former head of the research division at the Israeli Intelligence Corps and director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs Brigadier General Yossi Kupperwasser said on Tuesday.

“…the price they are paying is becoming higher every day that goes by and sometimes even by the hour. And they should cut their losses as soon as they can, because the more the more this war goes on, the prices they pay become more and more painful,” he said during an interview on GNT presented by Tom Burges Watson.

Kupperwasser added that the Israeli actions have severely and obviously weakened Hezbollah’s capabilities as several of their commanders have been killed and the speech of Hassan Nasrallah last week highlighted the organization’s predicament.

“We could have seen it when he was giving this address about the pager attack. He was so definitely looking bad and sad, and he has many good reasons to be concerned because this he said that it’s a proof that he is totally penetrated,” Kupperwasser said.

Last week, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon killing at least 39 people and wounding almost 3,000. Although Israel refused to comment on the explosions, fingers were widely pointed at the Middle Eastern country.

Israel then launched airstrikes on Beirut and the southern and eastern parts of Lebanon that have left at least 560 people dead and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Hezbollah alone to blame

Despite the large numbers of civilians being killed in the air campaign, Kupperwasser insisted that Israel only hits military targets solely blaming Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields.

“(…) all the targets Israel is hitting are military targets. Unfortunately, Hezbollah, just like Hamas, places its weapons inside the civilian houses… you know that Ibrahim Aqil held this meeting in which all the leaders of the one force were present in in a civilian house… in order to hit to reach the basement, you have to go through some parts of this house,” he said.

Aqil was a senior Hezbollah commander and chief of the group’s elite Radwan unit. He was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike in the capital Beirut.

Even though, he described Hezbollah as having been significantly weakened by the device explosions and strikes, Kupperwasser still considered them a force to be reckoned with.

“They communicate and you see that they’re still in control of the people. The attacks are carried out in the times that they want them to be carried out. It’s not the end of it. They still have the ability to command and control their abilities.”