Hajj Imad Mughniyeh. Photo: Alahed News/File photo.
By Zeinab Abdallah – May 26, 2024
Beirut – As a child in the 1990s, I only dared to dream about the liberation of my “Israeli”-occupied village in South Lebanon. Neither was I certain that my parents and I would be able to return to our homeland and their birthplace, nor did I have any clue that this was even achievable…
But today as a parent, weaponed with a strong faith that a daring group of believers in my country can do the impossible, I confidently assure my children that our border village will soon return a safe place to visit and live in after the months-long war that erupted in wake of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in the neighboring occupied Palestine.
Before the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, Hezbollah, made the historic victory in May 2000 and liberated the Lebanese territories long occupied by the ‘Israeli’ enemy, the dominant idea was that the ‘Israeli’ army is ‘invincible’, hinting that any effort made to confront it will be futile. Years passed, and the Lebanese resistance group scored successive victories in different operations that targeted the enemy’s barracks and military posts.
It was on this day some 24 years earlier, that a man equipped with as much faith as determination, stood in front of Lebanon’s liberated border area with the occupied Palestine, assuring every fighter and every freedom seeker alike, that as we regained Lebanon, we will manage to enter Palestine, when he forecasted that this sacred land will also be liberated.
As it took place gradually, the last ‘Israeli’ soldier withdrew from the Lebanese territories on May 24, 2000. And so did the Lebanese collaborators who formed the militia affiliated with the Zionist occupation that was known as ‘South Lebanon Army’ led by spy chief Antoine Lahad. At the time, most of Lahad’s officers and administration officials fled to the ‘Israeli’-occupied Palestinian territories with their families.
The man I told you about was Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, aka Hajj Radwan. He is the late and most renowned Resistance leader who raised fearless generations based on a divine equation that in any battle of righteousness, the power of the soul within us is much more important than the might of our physical structure and even our weapons.
Even in Hezbollah, a special operations force named after him, the Radwan Force, is the one whose members are trained to enter the ‘Israeli’-occupied territories, especially the Galilee.
The exceptional man, and his brother leading the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, are the iconic people that this historic achievement was made under their command. Also, Operation Truthful Promise that prompted ‘Israel’s’ July 2006 War on Lebanon was masterminded by Hajj Radwan and executed upon his supervision. To my knowledge, before Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, history didn’t mention any military commander who humiliated ‘Israel’ the way Hezbollah commanders did.
Southern Lebanon Stands With Resistance Despite Israeli Terrorism
Even to avenge its humiliating defeat as it withdrew its soldiers like rats from South Lebanon, ‘Israel’ kept pursuing Hajj Radwan until its agents managed to assassinate him in a cowardly car bombing in Syria’s Kafar Soussé.
Hezbollah fighters under the wise command of the resistance leadership are still doing it these days. They are the students of Hajj Imad who made him proud of their exceptional performance given the field calculations and the internal and external pressure put on them in the course of the brutal ‘Israeli’ war in the region.
More than seven months so far, Hezbollah has scored hundreds of operations with thousands of missiles. Many operations were qualitative, based on accurate intelligence, pained the enemy, and inflicted heavy losses upon its soldiers and officers, not to mention the huge material damage. All of this military activity has stunned the world which stood in appreciation and admiration for this small group of believers.
Thanks to Hajj Imad Mughniyeh and his brothers in resistance that we, the generation of the liberation, are raising fearless children who have no single doubt about the promised and inevitable victory. And thanks to him that our rising martyrs are paving the Ummah’s way toward the liberation of Palestine.
Thanks to the man and all of his companions, the known and the unknown ones, who taught every reasonable individual that no matter how many houses we will rebuild, and how many loved ones we sacrificed, as long as the liberation and dignity of our land will be given in return, then nothing is dearer.
Yes, my children, one day we will have some tea as we used to in the spot overlooking the Palestinian lands, and the other day we might have the tea with the famous bread of Al-Quds streets, on our way back from the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, by God’s willing, and the efforts of His men.
