Israel 'lost the war' in Gaza even if it invades Rafah — Hezbollah

Israel has "lost the war" in besieged Gaza even if it invades the southern city of Rafah, and the Israeli army is "exhausted" on all fronts, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said.

"After six months of fighting, the Hebrew state has failed to win a single victory or achieve a single objective," Nasrallah said on Wednesday in a televised speech amid the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"We say to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, even if you go to Rafah, you have lost the war, and you cannot eliminate Hamas or the resistance in Gaza despite all the massacres," he added.

"The Israeli army today is tired and exhausted on all fronts, and the number of its casualties is very large and much larger than declared," he said.

Nasrallah noted that as a result of Operation Al Aqsa Flood and fighting on the northern front near Lebanon, there are not enough troops in the Israeli army to continue the war.

"The economic losses in southern Lebanon cannot be compared to the significant losses of the occupation in the southern front [of Gaza]," the Hezbollah chief added.

'American stupidity'

"Does anyone believe that US President Joe Biden cannot stop the war on Gaza? He is able to stop the aggression on Gaza easily, whether in the [UN] Security Council or elsewhere," Nasrallah said.

He described the airdropping of humanitarian aid into Gaza as "hypocrisy" but also "American stupidity."

"What is required from the US administration is to stop the aggression on Gaza," he stressed.

Nasrallah affirmed that the Palestinian resistance group "Hamas negotiates on behalf of all resistance factions, and it negotiates not from a position of weakness but imposes conditions [on Israel]."

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of weapons fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.