Hezbollah Head: Israel Underestimated Gazan Spirit

Israel underestimated the fighting will of the Palestinian people, according to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“The Israelis are in a predicament. Perhaps they thought the [Palestinian] resistance does not have the will to persevere and the people will not be able to withstand this level of sacrifice,” Nasrallah has stated.

The comments came in an interview published on Thursday by Al-Akhbar.

According to Nasrallah, Israel’s latest offensive against Gaza took on a life of it's own, following the abduction of three Israeli settlers in June.

As the Israeli campaign wore on, Palestinian resistance fighters became “determined” to use the invasion “as an opportunity to lift the siege” of Gaza.

“It is obvious that the [Palestinian] resistance is not looking for a symbolic victory to lift morale or for a face-saving way out, rather it is looking for a real achievement, namely, lifting the siege, even if it is costly,” Nasrallah told Al-Akhbar He explained that Gazans of all political stripes oppose the siege of Gaza, even those who don't support Hamas.

“The question of lifting the siege is a unanimous, popular demand for all Gazans,” he stated.

“That is why...there was a consensus among the [Palestinian] factions not to accept the [Israeli ceasefire] offer without [an agreement to lift] the siege,” he explained.

However, Nasrallah argued Gazans never really had a choice to “either resist or surrender”.

“There is no choice here, in the sense that if a human being cares about his (sic) dignity, survival and existence... reason and logic – not slogans – say that they should fight,” he stated.