Hezbollah-Affiliated Imam Tells MSNBC They Have ‘Thousands of Martyrs Prepared To Sacrifice’ Against Israel

A Lebanese imam affiliated with Hezbollah told MSNBC’s Matt Bradley that there were scores of “martyrs” in Lebanon prepared to join Hamas and “sacrifice themselves against Israel.”

Hezbollah has been designated, in whole or in part, a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel, the European Union, and many other nations for years.

Bradley reported from Lebanon where he told José Díaz-Balart, “We were at a funeral yesterday for two of the Hezbollah fighters who were among the four who have been killed so far. And it was overflowing with anger and rage, both toward Israel and the United States. We heard versions of that Iranian chant you heard so much, ‘death to America.'”

Bradley said the imam “swore that even though Hezbollah has not entered the fight so far, they were prepared to do so.”

Bradley spoke Arabic with the imam, then translated:

(He said he) doesn’t wait for a signal from anyone. But when I asked if the Lebanese people feared a war, he said no. Telling me Lebanon has hundreds, even thousands of martyrs prepared to sacrifice themselves against Israel.

Bradley continued:

And that’s the exact reason, José, that there’s so much anxiety both here in Lebanon and across the border behind me in Israel. Because if Hezbollah does decide to enter the war, it would be a game changer. Hezbollah is so much more powerful than Hamas because it has partial governance over the entire country of Lebanon. It enjoys so much more support from Iran and other actors in the Middle East, and its people have freedom of movement, they can leave the country, they can come and go, unlike Hamas, which is stuck inside that blockaded enclave on the Mediterranean coast.

They have real weapons, real training, and they are bloodied in the fight in Syria for much of the past decade, fighting against Islamists, Sunni Islamists, there. So, they are an experienced, organized group organized militant group that really more resembles an army, and that’s why the U.S. and Israel, they are so concerned that Hezbollah could possibly weigh in, even as they plan what could be a major ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.