Hezbollah is much better equipped than it was in 2006 when its forces fought Israel’s to a standstill in a bloody 34-day confrontation in southern Lebanon.
During that conflict, the group had just 15,000 mostly unguided rockets, firing off just 4,000 of them.
But even though it now has an arsenal 10 times greater in number and far more potent, Mr Kassir said Hezbollah would far rather engage Israel in a longer low-level conflict that weakens its resolve rather than blow its full firepower in a single confrontation it probably cannot win.
“Weakening Israel through an attritional, drawn out confrontation is, in my opinion, the strategy Hezbollah prefers,” he said.