Laith Marouf: Overnight Drone Attack: Hezbollah Strikes Israeli Troops

0:00Hi, already today's Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026, and our dear friend, our brother, Lathem Arou from Beirut is here with us. Welcome, I'm Lathem. Great to be with you, Neema. Lathem, let me start with the new attacks in southern part of Lebanon, and we've learned that Hezbollah is, let me just bring up the footage here. It shows a drone attack on Israeli troops operating near Ali Al-Tahar in the southern part of Lebanon. And this is, I don't know how it was more than two weeks, that more than three weeks, that Hezbollah didn't attack Israeli soldiers, and they're finally getting back. As the war between Iran and the United States has started, and in the last three days, we've seen the United States attacking Iran and responding, and we see Hezbollah is getting

1:00back. What's going on, Lathem, in the southern part of Lebanon? You are right. It seems like Hezbollah is right now going on the offensive. It has been actually retaliating anytime the Israelis try to advance. So it hasn't been totally quiet on the side of Hezbollah. It was only whenever the Israelis tried to advance towards Al-Tahar Hill around the Nabatea region in the central border area, and or on the Ansariah axis on the coast, where Hezbollah would fight the advancements back. But today, as you mentioned, we are seeing a offensive operation by Hezbollah targeting Israeli soldiers, not on the move, trying to advance for instance. So that's a clear change, and now we know basically Hezbollah has been waiting to see

2:01what happens with the Iran-US confrontation, and now that we're back into full confrontation across the whole region, Hezbollah can take these offensive actions on. So that's what we expect in the next few hours and days for this to become even more heavy confrontations. Inside Lebanon, we saw multiple massacres happen in the last two days before this, because the Israelis have been falling into ambushes around Al-Tahar Hill. They keep on attacking the villages behind Al-Tahar Hill in the acclaimed Dufah or the Apple region. There was an attack on the village, the town of Arab Saleem, and this attack on a residential home led to the massacre of a couple that were newly wed just three days' marriage. So it was a very sad moment for the village and the family.

3:08And attacks on Ansariya continue, as I said, Al-Mansuri, sorry. So inside the country, people are waiting to see how this develops. Also President Josef Al-On was in Greece yesterday. This follows an announcement by Greece that they're signing a multi-billion dollar contract that is released to buy air defense systems. Air defense systems that have been proven not to work, but I guess when you're a Vassal and you're demanded to waste your money, you have to waste it like the Greeks did. And this is who's buying the air defense systems? The Greek government? Greece is buying air defense systems from Israel? Buying air defense systems from the Greece. Good luck with that. They're wasting 30 billion dollars on it. But to see Josef Al-On rush immediately after this announcement to Greece, then we are kind of seeing the outlines of what the US is trying to do here in the Eastern Mediterranean.

4:12They're trying to create an alliance between Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and maybe drag in the government of Josef Al-On and Lebanon into this alliance to face off with the access to resistance. Now, of course, nothing that Israel offers these countries will mean better security situations for them. On the contrary, when you get into an alliance with Israel, that means now you're going to be a target of the access to resistance. So if this front in Lebanon inflames much more, remember before, say it has the Nasr al-Amartad leader of Hezbollah had warned Cyprus and Greece, and also now we heard the warnings from Iran through these countries that if they get involved in this war, they will be targeted. So I think it's logical to expect that if this war spills and continues to accelerate

5:16that they will be attacked from Cyprus and Greece. They will report that Hezbollah is attacking northern part of Israel or the drones are getting there. It seems that it was some sort of false announcement. There was no attack. And the other point is the IDF stated that if Hezbollah attacks them in Israel, they're going to hit Beirut and we know what would be the response from Iran if they do that. How do you see the repercussions or somehow everything escalating to that point? Because Israel can, I would argue, they can say that we were attacked by drones from Lebanon and start attacking Beirut. Yeah, I mean, of course, as you're said, Israelis can make up excuses at any time. They want to commit massacres or they want to drag people into an escalation. So Hezbollah is very careful not to be the one that causes the escalation, but the Israelis

6:20are pushing for it. So it's going to happen, I personally think. So when we look at these false alarms in the north of Falkybapas, it reminds me, over the last two years, multiple times, the Israelis said there was swarms of drones and then it turned out to be birds, migratory birds, especially in these seasons of migration of birds. So they are, of course, scared of their own shadow. The Israelis think the enemy is everywhere, but that's what a colonialist always thinks of the indigenous people. So it is in my mind going to escape. There's no way around that. The status quo, both in the confrontation between Iran and the United States and or Israel and Hezbollah, is untainable. This is not sustainable. It has to be something has to give.

7:21So I'm expecting that in the next few hours, there will be an escalation inside Lebanon. Yeah. Do you think that with, you mentioned the Michelle Joseph Owen going to Greece and are they concerned about the southern Lebanon? Are they, do they talk with the Americans about what's going on, the escalation that is happening? They have signed an MOU, they have the, that MOU document that they signed with Israelis. Is there any sort of talk inside Lebanon? What is the government? Where is the government in what's going on inside of Lebanon? Yeah, there's been eight meetings between Joseph Owen's cabinet government and Israeli since they signed the MOU and nothing has moved. In fact, the last meeting, the Israelis walked out because the Lebanese government wasn't

8:27able to give them what they want. They can sign on all of these papers, but Joseph Owen doesn't have any power to actually implement the surrender that he's been required to implement. Inside the country, I think a lot of people are really angry at Joseph Owen and Nawaf Salam and their cabinet. There was a really disgusting moment a few days ago during the commemoration of the disappearance of Moukta Dasadr, sorry, Imam Asadr who was of founders of the Amel movement and the theological father of the tribe. You mean Imam Moussa Sadr? Yes, yes, Moussa Sadr, sorry, I said Moukta Dasadr in Iraq. Because then? Yes, because I was thinking also about what's happening in Iraq, but the point is Imam

9:28Moussa Sadr was disappeared in Libya and every year on the anniversary of his disappearance, the Shia population commemorates him. And for some reason, Joseph Owen decided to give a speech and bring up Imam Moussa Sadr and use his history and manipulated and actually lie about what Moussa Sadr was doing, claiming that he somehow wasn't that supportive of armed resistance and or of the people in the south resisting. And that resulted in a public re-buck from the Amel movement and the Speaker of the House Nabibirri as well as from Hezbollah. This was as disgusting as American presidents bringing up Martin Luther King as if they

10:31like him and or that he was somehow non-violent and not supportive of resistance through the mistreatment of black people in the United States. So it was on brand for imperialists. But this shows you also how Joseph Owen recognized, honestly, that the Shia population is all now against what the government is doing and was trying to manipulate it and it backfired on him this manipulation. When we look at inside the country, there is nothing that the Israelis can get from Joseph Owen and Noaf Salam. They are kind of abandoning the south. They have had abandon it and the people in the south recognize that and this is why they are going to, you know, people in the south are going to defend themselves without waiting for the government to do anything. Ladies, the Israeli defense minister said that they are preparing for Iranian attack.

11:37I assume that they see that they are going to, we don't know exactly when they are going to, but they are planning to do something in Beirut or attacking Beirut. That's why they are preparing themselves for Iranian attack. That the only case that makes sense to me. What is your assessment of that when someone hears that from Israeli defense minister in Lebanon? Yeah, I mean, people are worried. Of course, the Israelis are bloodthirsty always and the majority of their tactical military options are about genocide and ethnic cleansing. So it is logical that people are worried. They know they could be an attack on Beirut and nobody is prepared for it. There are no other defenses, of course, to protect the population. And I personally think that these announcements from the Israeli minister of defense is actually

12:42an admittance that the bases in Jordan are destroyed. So if there is no American bases in Jordan, that means the last defensive line is gone. So any more confrontation between the U.S. and Iran will lead to the attacking the American bases that are inside Israel right now. A lot of the air tankers that refuel the American jets are stationed inside Israel. This is their last line inside Western Asia. So if there is a bigger confrontation or continuation of confrontation with Iran logically Iran has to attack these air bases in order to defend itself and that will trigger, of course, a confrontation with Israel. So maybe, of course, the minister of defense of Israel is trying to preempt things and trigger the attack before Iran does it. So commit some massacre in Lebanon before Iran attacks the American presences in Israel.

13:48So I know it is expected. I wish the best for the populations in the region. But when you have such monstrous satanic empire and colony, it's hard to predict what crimes they may commit. There were two attacks, Iran and attacks on Jordan. First attack was, you see the interceptors going off and trying to intercept the Iranian missiles. And the second time Iran attack, we've seen no interceptors going off. Is that a sign that they're somehow keeping those interceptors for a greater war, for a bigger war between Iran and Israel? Maybe at some point Iran would hit Israel, try to attack Israel and they want to use those interceptors in Jordan to help Israel. Or the shortages when it comes to the interceptors, is that dire that they don't have it to intercept.

14:54Or what? Because it's not about Jordan. It's about a combination of Jordan and Israel altogether. What is the perception of the interceptors that Israel possess that Israel has? Do they have, I'm talking about Lebanon, I'm talking about Hezbollah. What is the understanding of the air defenses in Israel? Yeah, well, those images of a pack three American air defenses trying to shoot down Iran's missiles. Just from counting the how many were fired, already military experts said this one day, the United States used 30% of its pack three missiles, air defense missiles. This is a huge number. And even if the US wants to use the remainder of its 70%, they have to move them to Jordan.

15:57They wouldn't have put all 100% of their missiles inside Jordan. So I, in my opinion, they ran out of what they have on the ground in Jordan. And they will need to move things. Already those images of American helicopters on the back of truck beds being evacuated from the bases in Jordan indicates that they have no ability to protect these, you know, aircrafts on the, on the, on the tarmac. So they're most probably got withdrawn to inside the Jewish colony. And the systems that are there are going to have to do their job, but of course they failed over the last three years. I think the US is in a really, really bad situation with air defense systems. Israel itself also is in a really bad situation. Although during the 40-day war, Israel conserved its arrow and Davis-Lingshot missiles and

17:06let the Americans waste all their fat and pack threes. And so maybe they have a little bit more than what the American troops in the region have. But how much better can they respond to the hypersonic missiles than American systems? I don't think it's going to be much better. So the worry for the Israelis in the border in the north is not from ballistic missiles. It is for much, you know, lower altitude missiles. So that's where their iron dome systems come into effect. Haswala destroyed a lot of these iron dome systems in the north of Occupy Palestine. A few things that also I would like to note before we move on on this is that Israelis lost more than 70% of their tanks in the war inside Lebanon and inside Gaza over the last three years.

18:08They also lost over 600, 700 humvees. It's like almost 80% if not more of the humvees that Israelis operate are gone. So their ground forces are also now in a really bad situation. Not only their air defenses. So what is left for Israel really that it has untouched or undimaged severely is this air force. And so in a next confrontation between Iran, haswala on the one side and the Israelis on the other, there's going to be the primary focus of the access to resistance will be to damage the Israeli Air Force beyond repair and or its ability to conduct operations from inside Occupy Palestine. Israelis may find themselves having to take all their air force and run away with it to Cyprus, Greece or Romania or Bulgaria, for instance to hide those aircrafts from being damaged.

19:17But once that happens, if the Israelis are forced to even just withdraw their air force outside of Occupy Palestine, they will have a situation that they cannot maintain, meaning to give cover to their forces on the ground inside Gaza or inside Lebanon. If their air force is not inside Palestine, it will have a hard time doing sorties that are precisely needed for instance to save some of their troops as they fall into traps or something like that. So the next level of damage will be to the Israeli Air Force and once that happens, I think the fall of the regime will accelerate. Leith, what does Israel want from Cyprus and Greece strategically? I'm not talking about they're selling air defense system to Greece, but when it comes to the case of Israel, there's security, the way that they see the region.

20:20You have Greece is far away from the region, but they're trying Cyprus is closer to Israel, you know that. And what is the strategic mindset of getting closer to Cyprus and Greece? One on the one hand is obviously to loot these countries, you know, do all the fake business that they do the Israelis and giving them bad products. That's one thing. The other is having a backup home for these colonists. When you go to Larnaca, for instance, the capital of Cyprus, you'll find out actually that the vast majority of properties inside the downtown of Larnaca are now owned by Israeli companies, who Israeli companies own the vast majority of urban buildings right now in the cities of Cyprus. There is whole segregated villages that come up compounds with, you know, fencing and guards and everything that are in the countryside, specifically the coast of Cyprus right now.

21:34So a lot of these Israelis are just by improper tea and having it as a backup when they want to leave. Similar thing is happening in Greece, especially in the islands. There was the rumors a few months ago that the Israeli billionaires were trying to buy a chain of 40 islands from the Greek government. The Greek government is very compliant. There's already, we saw in the area called, what is it called? I'm forgetting the name of it. It's a name of an olive, a Greek olive. Coin is the whole coastline of this one island that is by law, no corporations and private homes can be built on the shoreline. So you have now this government giving the right to an Israeli investor to just take the whole shoreline and the locals are unable to swim.

22:36There's a chain of islands that are right beside mainland Turkey that are also being purchased right now by the Israelis. So that brings the presence of Israelis, yes, Greece is a little bit far, but people forget that there's some islands that are Greek islands that are right at the side. South of Turkish mainland. So they are almost on the same parallel as Cyprus. And they will have, they, you know, there they will have some bases for Mossad and others and, you know, controlling the trade routes. Is it Elia? Elia is the coal. In Greece. Calamata. Calamata. Calamata. Now I remember Calamata olives. So that's a big story. The Calamata shoreline being taken over by these Israeli investors. So those are parts of that. And finally, of course, we have the idea that the NATO Air Force, American Air Force,

23:45and the Israeli Air Force will use the bases in Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria to conduct their attacks on the access of resistance as they lose all their bases in Western Asia. So those are the three kind of layers of why the Israelis are investing so much in their relationships with Cyprus and Greece. I was just checking. Calamata is located in Greece. But it's close to somehow to Cyprus. No, it's not close to Cyprus. In the southern part of Greece, I was checking that. Then just moments ago, there is a video coming out of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister. And he's mentioning that we control the territory. We are not withdrawing. We are staying on this line. He's talking about Gaza Strip. And he says we control 60% of Gaza Strip.

24:48And there is still more to come. Because we are eliminating the terrorists who threatened us doing, yeah. And then nothing is blah, blah, blah. And then yesterday we took out Amaz Head of the Shimbut. And we have certainly learned a few things. This is, late coming to the case of Gaza. What is the situation? He's talking about 60% before we've learned 70%. Some people in Israel arguing 100%. And the case of the West Bank, the same thing. The attack every day, the attack in the West Bank and the Gaza. What is the situation there? Yeah, the situation in Gaza is bad. Obviously, they do control around 60% of the land. But they have not been able to defeat the resistance. Yesterday, the Israelis

25:56chin-baited special forces, as well as some of the mercenaries that they're operating with inside Gaza. Conducted an operation trying to kidnap one of the leaders of the internal security forces of the government in Gaza. It was a big battle. It was vigilant people watched it. You know, tens of operatives trying to capture this man. They killed a lot of civilians around because they were discovered. And the, you know, man fought back valiantly. On the video, you can see that he was fighting back and he killed an injured a lot of Israeli operatives. They unfortunately captured him alive at the end after they conducted tens of air raids on the area around to kind of give cover to these operatives that were discovered. I doubt they will get much information from him.

27:01They will be torturing him as they do that's the normal conduct of the Zionist. So, you know, hundreds, on thousands of Palestinian prisoners tortured and died under torture. Is this going to change the reality inside Gaza, the capture of one man? Well, they killed much of the leadership captured others of the resistance and nothing changed. People will be resisting an occupation, a genocidal occupation no matter what you do. This is why we hear Ben Giver speaking yesterday saying that there is no military solution. They cannot really win this war. Their only solution is to expel the Palestinians because they will always be Palestinians that are kind of resist their dispossession and the crimes committed against them. And his complaint, Ben Giver's complaint is that there is no countries that are willing to take

28:04these forcefully expelled people and that the Israeli government is somehow conducting surveys of people in Gaza and that the most of them want to leave, which is I doubt that the Palestinians that are still there, yes, want relief from the genocide, but they will not abandon Gaza after all the sacrifices that they gave to liberate it. So, that's happening in Gaza, you know, and just a few hours ago, there was another attack, another attack is really attacked. This is every day, at least 15 to 25 Palestinians in Gaza are massacred. That's very similar to the number that Ben Giver bloodlust once. He wants around 40 to 50 Palestinians killed in Gaza to satisfy his urges. In the West Bank attacks on a daily basis. We saw those attacks yesterday, outside Nablus and outside Ramallah by settlers. Some of the viewers may have watched that video of journalists

29:10attacked an international NGO workers being attacked by these settlers and then these really soldiers protecting these settlers. That happens every day. As I said last time, there's around 200 Palestinian villages in the West Bank that have been completely depopulated, ethnically cleansed. And there's the refugee camps in Tulkerem, Nablus, and outside Khalil, Hebron that have been destroyed and the populations haven't been able to or allowed to go back to their homes. Here is the report. I don't know if you mentioned the report on NBC. Here is what they said. The disturbing attack happening in the middle of our interview. That's Aida Ahmed Abdallah, a Palestinian woman, telling us how Israeli settlers forced her family out of their home in the West Bank. Now, she can only watch her home on security cameras, showing the settlers strolling through her yard. She says she dies a hundred times a day watching

30:13this scene. But as Aida carefully walked us toward her home, a gray car full of masked young men pull them up. Armed with sticks and stones, they smashed our cars windshield. Oh, no! Pummeled our team with sticks and beat 51-year-old Aida unconscious. Are you okay? Is Israeli Jewish settlers, some of whom want to intimidate Palestinians into leaving their land, attacked Palestinian homes throughout the West Bank Saturday? Is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemning criminal acts of settler violence, including the attack on NBC News? And this criticism from the U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. We're appalled at some of the things that have happened to families who are the victims of just criminal activity that is inexcusable and repugnant. We were able to get Aida to an ambulance. Maybe us and our team was treated from minor injuries.

31:18The next day we checked in with Aida, she's left the hospital, but she won't be convalescing at home. That's still occupied by those settlers. Lave, what is the support that these people, these settlers are getting from the Israeli government? Because Benjamin Netanyahu, last time I watched him in the United States, he had an interview on CNN, if I'm not mistaken, said, these people are thugs and we're trying to do our best to avoid that. But how do you see the link between these people and the Israeli government? Of course, those same settlers in that video are currently being protected by an Israeli military detachment outside the homes that they just stole. So there's Israeli soldiers stationed right now protecting them from the Palestinian population. And anytime these colonists attack

32:24Palestinians, they're always also accompanied by Israeli soldiers either watching them from afar or intervening whenever the Palestinians fight back. So if you hear an Israeli official saying that these colonists are somehow thugs or criminals and don't represent Israel, no 100% they're lying as they are speaking, these Israeli officials. Ben Giver, of course, armed to the teeth, all these Israeli soldiers, thousands and tens of thousands of machine guns handed over to them. And these settlers? Yes, these settlers were getting tens of thousands of military hardware given to them directly by Ben Giver, he filmed himself doing it, he did multiple programs showing the army and training of these settlers. And they even got ATVs, you know, off-road machines

33:26and bikes and SUVs and all of that handed to them by Ben Giver as the internal security minister. So they are using Israeli military equipment in these ethnic cleansing attacks on Palestinian villages. They are conducting the policy of Netanyahu. Netanyahu claims the West Bank is a part of Israel and it's not going to return it. The same thing about Gaza. Now we hear the same thing about South Lebanon. So of course these settlers are going to act on the wars of Netanyahu and Ben Giver. And I doubt that the Israeli government that never took any action against these violent colonists in decades that they will suddenly start doing that, especially that Netanyahu is going into elections. And he needs the support of Ben Giver and small church. The Israeli media is

34:29talking about a fight between small church and Ben Giver and how Netanyahu is trying to bring them together. And the statements that Netanyahu is saying to the media is that Ben Giver and small church should kiss and make up because if they don't, the opposition will win the election if there is no coalition between small church and Ben Giver and Netanyahu. So Netanyahu knows that his faith is connected to the faith of Ben Giver and small church. So how do I expect Netanyahu to do something against the thugs that small church and Ben Giver are arming? I don't. Is there any difference between Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett or the other guy who was part of the military? He was the candidate right now. I think he has a better chance better than what Naftali Bennett has. And I don't know, he's Moroccan if I'm not mistaken.

35:32And he was part of the military. His name was Gantz. Yeah. And is there looking at these candidates in Israel and they're fighting, and you see the fight is serious between them, between Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition? Is that going to bring any sort of difference? The way that Israel is occupying Syria, occupying Lebanon, occupying Palestine? Well, although currently I think around 60% of Jewish colonists in Palestine are not of European background, meaning like they're Ethiopian or Arabic background, there hasn't been ever in a non-European Jew take the position of Prime Minister inside the colony. And so I doubt that suddenly that will change. So racism is so severe that this will not happen.

36:38And so I think the only real opposition that could have a chance is Naftali Bennett, not because he's more likeable or that he has better plans for Israel, it's just because he's the other white candidate in the face of Netanyahu. So I don't care about Gantz or Canada, see I already write it off because he's not European. In terms of the difference between these candidates, it's not that they have any conflict or disagreement on killing Arabic or Muslim peoples or new king Iran or genociding and ethnically cleansing Lebanon or Gaza. What they have a disagreement on is the public image. How do you achieve these goals with the least harm to the image of Israel? And so whenever it's the same

37:45kind of argument we hear like liberals are and I spoke about Netanyahu as if he's you know harming Israel, right? It's not that they care about the harm done to the Palestinians or the Lebanese or the Iranians, they care about the image of Israel. So I personally would rather have Netanyahu in charge. So we can be very frank and open in our discussions and the audience and the whole world population sees with their own eyes and we don't have to even explain it to them. They can see it and hear it from the horse's mouth, the racism and the supremacy and the genocidal intent. If somebody like enough to live in it comes into power he may able to manipulate a little with the public image and this actually works against our liberation struggle. I'd rather again have Netanyahu than enough to live in it but even with this point I think Israel's image is beyond saving.

38:49If they bring the best propagandists in the world and the most liberals to control Israel and its image they cannot fix it. It's already a turd openly and you cannot like wax it and make it into a diamond. It's impossible. So the damage to the image of Israel is now eternal. It's going to take generations for people to forget that. It's the same thing with the Nazis and the Holocaust. Right now we're on generation three and maybe people are starting to forget the Holocaust and the Nazis but you couldn't have made the generation that lived World War Two forget the crimes of the Nazis and you couldn't even make the generation after that also forget it. So this is the same situation that Israel is fighting for itself in now. Thank you so much, Lathe, for being with us today. Great pleasure as always. Thank you so much, Neymar. Please go, I just forgot. Please go to free Palestine.video right below Lathe name you can see the free Palestine.video to support Lathe

39:55and follow him on his YouTube channel free Palestine TV free Palestine TV on YouTube and you can follow him there as well. Thank you so much Lathe as always. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Neymar. See you next week. See you soon. Bye.