Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah Immediately Following 2006 Second Lebanon War: We Never Would Have Captured Two Israeli Soldiers Had We Known It Would Lead To War (Archival)

In an August 27, 2006 interview with Al-Jadeed TV (Lebanon), Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that he had not considered the possibility that capturing Israeli soldiers would lead to war with Israel. He explained that retaliation at such a scale was considered "inconceivable" and that no country in history had ever gone to war because two of its soldiers were captured. He also said that if he had known that the "capturing operation would lead to the kind of war that unfolded," then the July 12, 2006 Hizbullah operation in which Israeli reserve soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were abducted would not have taken place. This is original footage of the interview, which took place shortly after the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Hassan Nasrallah: "We carried out much more significant operations than the June 12 capturing [of the Israeli soldiers]. Those operation caused many more Israeli casualties, yet they did not lead to this kind of war.

"I would like to say this clearly, and I want people to listen to me, because there is still a controversy over this. We did not think that there was even a one-percent chance that the operation to capture [Israeli soldiers] would lead to a war of such a scale.

"If anyone asks me how come we did not think there was even a one-percent chance, my answer is that the way things had been going since 1982, and our decades-long experience with the Israeli behavior, our experience as a resistance movement, and our study of the Israelis all led us to the conclusion that it was inconceivable, especially at that time.

"Israel was welcoming tourists, just like we were doing, and had their own circumstances, just like us... It was inconceivable that the retaliation for the capturing operation would be to such an extent.

[...]

"Never in the history of wars did a country launch a war against another country, because two of its soldiers were captured, or 3 or 4 of its soldiers were killed. This had never been a reason [to launch a war].

"If you ask me whether – in case I thought on July 11 that there was even a one-percent chance that the capturing operation would lead to the kind of war that unfolded – would I still carry out the capturing operation, my answer is: Absolutely not.

[...]

"I believe that none of the 15 [Hizbullah decision-makers] even considered that there was a one-percent chance of war, despite our long experience as politicians and military commanders. So I believe that this was God's will, because had there been even 1% of such chance, we would not have captured [the Israeli soldiers]."