Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qasem warned that the resistance group had the right to retaliate for the assassination of senior commander Haitham al-Tabtabai and asserted that surrender was not an option, Al-Manar reported.
Speaking at a memorial service for the supreme commander on Friday, Sheikh Qasem said last week’s attack on Dahiyeh was “a blatant invasion and a heinous crime” and stressed that Hezbollah “has the right to respond and will decide its timing.”
He paid tribute to Al Tabtabai, also known as ‘Sayed Abu Ali’, praising him as an example of planning, courage and wisdom.
Speaking on November 27, 2024, one year after the ceasefire that ended the brutal Israeli war, Sheikh Qasem said the ceasefire was a victory for the resistance, the people and Lebanon. “This is a real victory because we prevented the enemy from achieving his goal of eliminating the resistance,” Sheikh Qasem said at a ceremony at the Saeed Shuhada Complex.
Al Tabtabai, Hezbollah’s chief of staff and commander of the elite Radwan force, was killed on November 23, 2025 in an Israeli airstrike on Haret Lake in the Dahieh district on the southern outskirts of Beirut. The airstrike killed five people and injured 28 others.