doing in order for there to be a plan for it to then know how to retaliate? no, i think hezballah will have plans for these contingencies, they've been expecting it for some time. i have, as your guest said already have this idea of equation that they established with the israelis for the last um almost 20 years, basically which which had been led to a sort of a type of a status quo, um... and which has been broken now by the israelis basically, well i suppose it was broken by the insurrection in gaza and then of hisbolla supporting gaza basically, but i don't think that the the the plans of of hespal would change, the main weak point if you like, from the point of view of lebanese resistance is the lack of decent air defense, there's been very little capacity in terms of air defense, and so israelis had the superiority in the sky, and i think they're going to make use of that rather than you know... rather than revert to a ground

invasion, there have been some small invasions of special forces which have been mostly destroyed as i understand it, but were lebanon or hesbollah to gain some decent air defense from iran or from russia or of combination of the two, that would change the equation once again, but the making. all right, so mariam, um, give us an idea as to um the uh state that these towns are in at this point, i think earlier when we..." spoke to you, you mentioned that there had been 1 million people that have been displaced, are we looking at towns that have been completely emptied out? is that is that the case, or are we looking at every town being different in terms of uh uh some who have stayed behind and uh of course once to have left?

miam, do you have my voice? uh, yeah, if you can repeat the question, i'm i'm looking, i'm asking about the the towns that have been hit hard in southern lebanon uh, and as to uh, in based on again and what you said, 1 million people have been displaced, um, are we looking at certain towns being completely barren, nobody's there that have emptied out, or are we looking at every town having its own situation where some have decided to stay and many to have left, perhaps, if you can give us an idea. and picture on that. yes, well, calby, we need to recall that since the 8th of october, the israelies have been bombarding the border towns, so it is not only the towns that are now being evacuated, where you have displaced people leaving those towns that are relatively away from the border, the border towns had already been displaced and we saw that they were also emptied out almost completely, so we had all the border towns all along the border. if you

can name some of them that we've of course we've heard lot about throughout the last time of confrontation, the year of confrontation actually from rasasanqura naqura towards then going towards shihin and ramyashaab salhani then going to ayitarun jabal blida all the way to farkilaisy and ham, all those towns had been slowly and bit by bit um evacuated by the people, although we did have families, for example in khiam and adiisi for the first few months, but then later on the israelis began to shoot haphazardly, even with rifle fire anyone that came near the border, and this is why the families were leaving those border towns, reaching perhaps... number of 100 thous

displaced at least uh throughout the first few months of the confrontation, lot of those displaced people had to take homes and apartments, areas in other towns and cities like nabal tire, seiden, many of them had to leave of course through the other towns that are in the surrounding, for example in the entire there are several towns like for example kana, siddiqin, these are all towns that had received uh the displace that have to leave from the border towns also when for example those leaving from khiam also went towards nabatiye and so we saw that those cities were receiving those displaced now you have even those who were displaced from the bordertowns all the way to the uh to those main cities or the areas which were considered. safe, now everyone along with

those towns have to leave, but we do know that there are families in certain towns that have remained, um, there are families that perhaps do not have relatives in in beirot or in other areas that are safe, you have people who do not have vehicles to be able to leave the area and have not been provided for right now any vehicles or any means of evacuation, we even learned that there were some families that were attempting to take refuge in the caves and the mountains in some areas where they would probably be safe from the shelling of course which is something that is probably not accurate the israels are also shelling the mountain. and the valleys, but lebanon is known to have lot of caves and so they are using the natural means perhaps to try to find some sort of shelter with the fact that they do not have the ability to leave, and we do have of course some towns that have been completely evacuated, which are in the

border, but the other towns, i think we have lot of men that remain in those in those towns, um, we have men that are not organized within the structure of the resistance, however many of... decide to stay, since if there is a need to defend their towns, they are going to be ready for that, and this is something you hear from the people, and that also explains the fact and something that the israelis have up until now have not understood, the resistance is not separate from the people, the people are the resistance and the resistance is the people, and it is the they are all the resistance fighters, whether they are the official organized members of the... existance, they also have all of their families, it is there, they are the fathers, the brothers, the the husbands, the they are the families of those people who are being displaced and the people who are who remain, and so many of the men who are only civilian perhaps and do not have any type of organized position in the

resistance have also decided to remain in their bor in their towns that are not even the border towns like for example have lot of people who remain in that area in order to to see how issues perhaps develop, whether later they will be also forced to flee is still not clear, and some of them of course, like i mentioned, decide to stay in order to be in a a status where just in case there is need to defend their towns, they will be ready for that, this is concerning all the border town, but you have also the fact that the buqa area has been targeted, and this is area that was not extensively targeted by the... in 2006, it had always been considered area where people can reach refuge or seek refuge. in 2006 we have many of the displaced families that left south lebanon and the southern suburbs of beiroth, they were able to go to the villages and towns in the bakka in balbak

and be considered relatively safe. there were very few instances, there were some examples of course of israeli shelling where even there were massacers and were killed in those strikes, but they were limited. now you have the same type of pressure that is being put on the people and the population of south lebanon, it's also being put on the ba val valley, and that is area, also great support for the resistance, and this is perhaps another message from the israelis to the resistance, and that is one thing that the israelis could probably succeed in her. bring the resistance and this is a weak point for the resistance, the people, it supporters, the civilians, the children, the women, the elderly, this is a weak point for the resistance is the resistance has from the beginning and from its onset stressed that it is humanitarian grassroots movement for the

sake of freedom and fighting for its people and indepence of its country, and this is why the israelis play on this, and it is the same also uh in palestine as well and palestine of course they've had long years of struggle and suffering. lebanon has lived several years of no war perhaps, so the new generation has not really witnessed this extent of wars. you also have the fact that lot of people are still coming out of this and there's still a type of shock, and we heard this even from from hazballah's officials, we from the deputy secretary general saying that it's true there was a certain. time when we were in shock, but this did not make us weaker. we only had to ponder on things, look at what, observe what is happening, absorb what is happening, and then later on work based on that issue, and seems that for the

resistance, if there is an evacuation of the major parts of south lebanon, especially from the civilians, and they are taken to safe haven, and we see that cooperation from many. areas uh in lebanon, we heard from the many factions, christian factions, the jews factions stressing that they will be receiving the displaced people, despite the fact that some of those factions are: were not totally with the resistance or perhaps in political terms, they have their differences with hazballah as a political party, but when it comes to the issue of resistance, when it comes to the issue of support for the palestinian resistance, all those factions are ready to receive the supporters of the resistance since they believe this is sacrifice that all of lebanon should take and they need to be united in such a state, and that is a strong point for lebanon, which has also witnessed that extent of unity despite the... very few factions uh that are pro-western uh the're uh pro-us perhaps or

closer to saudi arabia, they are funded and back by saudi arabia and the us and so they are continuously also perhaps slaming hazballah or the resistance, you have those voices, but they are still very few since they are paid for uh as we know from reports by the us embassy and by even some arab states, but secretly. uh and and like i said despite all that the unanimous and general populist in lebanon, whether it is the christian factions or the jewish factions or the sunni factions, they are all supportive the resistance, and it was also a big surprise for lot of people to see that there was this unity, even in the beginning and hazballah's endeavor to support the palestinian resistance of waza and those operations, there were many sides, but like i said were perhaps opposing or opposition to hisballah's political maybe plans or

political means of of working with things, they were totally supported of hezballah support for the palsing resistance, and so now they know that this is the price that the resistance and the supporters of the resistance are praying are paying because they stood by aghasa, they had a main objective by launching those operations on the 8th of october 2020. 23, which is that the israelis need to stop their genocidal war and the onslot, or else hasbullah will continue with the war of retression, and experts are saying that the reason why the israeli prime minister, and even with you unanimous support from many in the israeli regime, they went for this war, it's because it seems that the war of retrition that the resistance of lebanon has enforced upon the israeli military has been successful. and they cannot bear that extent that is happening, but they are still miscalculating

the fact that they believe military terms, they are able to take on hisbullah and to stop its um its capabilities or stop its rocks and well we mentioned one of the officials, the former officials in the israeli regime who said that they are mistaken and i will not under as he said he said i will not believe the israeli prime minister or the... officials who are saying that through military terms we can actually end this threat from the north uh as they call it or end the capabilities of hizballah they said that the because he believes that hizbullah's rocket capabilities and the military capabilities that hizballah has and its armaments are infinite and so hizbullah can not only just go for months they could probably go for years in this fight uh which is something that there were lot of experts that were saying that the israelis cannot go for, but it seems that the the israeli

regime's prime minister and many officials in the um in the regime have changed that ideology or that path of decisive quick wars which were the case in the past. now we're talking about long wars, long wars that tried to break the resistance and the people of the resistance, they've attempted so far. for a full year, they have not succeeded, and if they do decide to launch that and continue with this issue in lebanon, perhaps for another year, that too, as experts are saying and the lebanese people are saying, will also not succeed, now hizbullah as we know is launching another salvo of rockets, we know that sirens are sounding in the in karachmona, which is settlement that is close to the border, but you also have that sirens are sounding. in the areas that are further like ha andula and now we have reports from

the israely media saying that explosions are being heard in afula and this is somewhere which is far away the israely media mentioned that the sirens were sounding some 377 times in the last 24 hours and that were and sirens were reaching almost all the areas towards all the way towards the center of the israeli regime not only uh in haifa and other areas and this is the highest number since the 7th of october, which is also very significant. now we also know that in nazareth as well and in other areas... the golan heights and in the lower galilei sirens are also sounding and there are sounds of explosions now and afula, of course we need to wait and see if there are any fillah operations that we know that there were reportedly in a new salvo of rockets that was launched towards the the guilli or the occupied areas now it seems

taking things towards a further area. but now we can say that all of the settlements in all the northern region, northern occupied palestine are under hazballah's rockets and hazballah perhaps is waiting to see how far the israelis go with their shelling to be able to take things a bit further when it comes to where they let their rockets reach, but like i said in the beginning, it seems that hasas time now, despite the fact that we do launching of rockets, this is also a time to observe and absorb what is happening in order to go on with the next step, the issue of launching of rockets is only just the in appearance of how the resistance is proving that it's still standing its feet and all the past blows, which we hear of course the us officials talking about that they have weakened to telecommunications, they have

weakened hasbul's infrastructure, the military infrastructure, the human resource infrastructure that it has. in those terror attacks on tuesday and wednesday, the explosion of the pages, the explosion of the the um the walkie talkies and then the assassination of a big portion of its main commanders, but now hazbullah has proven that all of these blows have not taken it down and it's still standing its feet, but i think we need a little more time to see how hazbullah can maneuver, and with the fact that we do have lot of evacuation in south lebanon will make it easier for hazballah to be able to... especially in south lebanon in retaliation of the israelis, even before the israelis launch or begin a ground invasion. well, it's interesting uh, the statement that you make there in terms of how is waiting to see what israel is going to do, because that is the whole focus right now as to what's going to happen um given the fact that you had that bombing campaign that happened uh yesterday.

um, based on uh, what we're looking at here mariam, are we still looking at the fact uh that? is trying to feel israel out in order to then uh proceed with some type of uh a uh counterattack or a retaliation uh that uh will i'm not too sure if i can say prevent israel from continuing but that will put it in check uh in order to uh then have israel recalculate whether it is worth pursuing the intensity of the bombing that they did the day before uh and for it to continue with that type of uh bombing campaign in that high intensity? well, it would be very difficult, i think to see that the israelis would probably um, maybe mention or admit that they have been mistaken or that they see that there is no result in this, i think that they're going to take this to the end uh, but they are still working based on the old

ideology as well, though they are trying new method, which is a... genocidal wars, long, prolonged genocidal wars instead of short precise wars, um, but they are also mistaken, especially on the issue of lebanon and its resistance, although we have heard that they are saying that hasulah's strengthening, has be loss gaining ground, has be lost adding to it stopp of rockets and abilities, still they have miscalculated on how hisb might react and deal with such a prolonged war. and how they're going to retaliate based on this aggression, but with what we're seeing and the the the method that netanyahu has used in hazza and the ministers along with him and even those who are in the opposition who have been slamming him on the issue of how he

dealt with the north, now it seems that he found that leverage that they're allowing him to take a breather and not... go for a prisoner swap in ghaza and go actually for a war and he's running of course away from any solution to the ghaza crisis and the israelies had a choice, of course they had a choice from the beginning several wars and we had several months in secretary general said in one of his statements that haven't you killed enough, haven't you, mean quenched your thirst for blood enough and mentioned that after the perhaps a death toll in in palestine reached over 15. 15 thousand um so the in order to as you said for example let's say they want to vend that anger anger after the 7th of october and that's a huge uh catastrophe for them, but it was it wasn't enough, it it did not seem that their thirst for blood was quedged, and it now we understand that it's probably not just issue

of uh revenge for the 7th of october or stopping hizballah or trying to to separate the fronts between ghazza and lebanon, there were old plans put forth by israel to actually attack lebadon and try to disarm. has the law and that was a plan that was put forth before now and this is a plan that is supported by the us and i think that when we go and we go further in this, which will take a little time for us to be able to grasp and understand what is happening or what will happen, if the israelies feel that they are being weakened, especially with the fact that hazballah has targeted up until now the weapons uh storages, the military airports uh trying to go to the source. making sure that they weaken the military institution uh before it continues with this war and goes on with another plan, um, if the us senses that

the israelis are weak to the extent that they cannot go on, i think we're going to see then an intervention from the united states, but it would be very complicated to see how that is going to happen, just less than um two months to the to the to the elections and with the fact that there's all those complications within the us itself and its administration, what that could mean for uh for the us as well and entrance into the regime into the region in a war like this, with the fact that we also have lot of words of support from the islamic republic of iran and countries like iraq and yemen which have stressed that they will not leave the resistance alone in lebanon, they have been supportive of the palestinian resistance, now it seems they are... even more encouraged to support the resistance in lebanon as well, uh, there was an interesting um entry that was made and i'd like to get your idea on that if i may uh mariam and uh that comes

from axius, i'm going to name it because uh seems like they have uh their foot in the door when it comes to some uh information that perhaps is not widely reported on and it indicates that uh the us though it fears this uh war in lebanon. is hoping for the israely attacks to actually push hezbollah to deal and it says that uh they're hoping to with the israeli military pressure as they call it to get a diplomatic deal to return civilians to their homes on both sides of the israely lebanon border. mean is that really the type of thinking that's going on here when it comes to this whole thing? contradiction? i don't know if if you can see it the way that i read this. it's a total contradiction, how can this be the case, if if the israelis had a choice? hez was quite clear for all the mediators that came into lebanon, uh, the us

presidential envoy alextine came into lebanon at least five times, he spoke to the officials, the officials were very clear in what they said, stop the genocidal war on ghazza and you can return the settlers to the north and hazbullah will automatically and directly stop its operations, we saw. that in the first truth in november 2023 when there was a limited prisoner swap and uh also the the fact that the the the palestinian resistance also stopped the the launching of rockets and its operations and although the israelis violated that truth on many occasions did not strike one single bullet uh from lebanon into the israeli posts and so hazbullah kept to their word and they were very clear on this what... what they wanted was a prisoner swap to make sure that the palestinian prisoners, the women, the children, the adolescents who were in prison, were talking about thousands of prisoners in

the israeli jails, um, that they were brought back home safely, and that let the the israeli prisoners also return, but it seems that now it is clear that the israeli regime, especially the israeli regime's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has absolutely no concern for the israeli prisoners, um, that are in gassa and his main concern is just of course the continuation of this war in order to try to see how much he can buy time to win this uh what he's calling the new the new historic stance for for him of course as a an israeli leader uh and and the israelis had a choice has could have stopped its operations once they go for deal and the deal was always in the state where it was very close to being achieved even hamas. hamas met the israelis at their door, they met them also halfway, they told them, we accept the us president, joe biden's plan, although the hamas had

always said we have. no trust in the us and despite the fact that we have no trust, but we want to end the suffering of our people, we do not want to see any more death and destruction against our people, we are ready to make that concession, we are ready to make that sacrifice, but we need to go for that deal, and the plan that was put in place by the us, and this is the us, this is the us which is always biased to israel, and hamas was saying they accepted that deal, and benjamin netanyahu had that choice, now with the fact that he's has thrown that choice away and has absolutely put it aside and went for the military option, then hizbollah i think will have to go on with that option for the rest of the time and will have to go on with the next phase, although heizballah's main objective in the beginning was always support for the resistance, ending the genocidal war in has a prisoner swap deal and

making sure that the civilians in lebanon are safe. "it was always an issue of strategic defense. hasballah never wanted to go for war and all out war since it is always very um very calculating of all the moves in all areas, so even when it comes to its military capabilities. we also heard from hasas secretary general, one of the the interviews way before the 7th of october of 2023 and before the el operation and even other operations from the palestinian resistance to try to retrieve the..." prisoners, these the palestinian prisoners in the jails, he said that perhaps we will not need a war uh with the fact that the israeli regime and is is in a state of disintegration and the fact that he as he considered it that the the inhabitants of the israeli regime are usurpers, they are settlers, they are occupying forts, and it is considered an unnatural force, and he called it a temporary regime, they will automatically be leaving...

this land because they are, there's no attachment to this land as the palestinians have, and he said that, perhaps we might not need to launch a war, we do not need a war in order to liberate palestine, as you said, but it seems that the odds have decided that it is going to be through a war, perhaps, and although has previously said that perhaps is not now and not the time to liberate palestine, to allow those palestinian refugees who aren't. to return to their homes, lot of them by the way, are from saf and nahaya and hifa, and they are still here, and although we have the second generation, third generation, now even fourth generation of palestinian refugees, they are still talking about returning to their homeland, and that is a dream that hisballah was able to open for the palestinian refugees, not only in lebanon, but also in the diaspora that they want.