The head of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Friday said that it would respond swiftly “on the battlefield” to the killing of Hamas’ deputy leader in its south Beirut stronghold.
“The response is inevitably coming. We cannot remain silent on a violation of this magnitude because it means the whole of Lebanon would be exposed,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“The decision is now in the hands of the battlefield,” he said in his second speech since the killing of Hamas deputy leader Salah al-Aruri on Tuesday.
Photo: Screengrab from al-Manar via AFP
“Fighters from all areas of the border ... will be the ones responding to the dangerous violation in the [southern] suburbs [of Beirut],” he added.
Al-Aruri, who was killed in a missile strike widely attributed to Israel, is the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed during the Israel-Hamas war that broke out on Oct. 7 last year.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike but a US defense official on Wednesday said that Israel carried it out.
It was the first on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.
In a speech on Wednesday, Nasrallah had already said Israel should refrain from waging war on Lebanon, threatening that the group’s response would be “without limits.”
Hezbollah and its archfoe Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since the war started, but al-Aruri’s killing has led to fears of an escalation.
Since October, the group has carried out about 670 operations, targeting 48 Israeli border positions and 11 rear sites, Nasrallah said.
The Gaza war has opened “a historic opportunity to completely liberate every inch of our Lebanese land,” Nasrallah said, referring to 13 areas of dispute along the border with Israel.
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said Israel “prefers a diplomatic path over a military one” to restore calm near the Lebanese border.
“We prefer the path of a diplomatic solution done with agreement but we are close to the point of the hourglass turning over,” Gallant said.
The escalating war of words has prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint.
Nasrallah also accused Israel of under-reporting its military losses, claiming Hezbollah has released footage showing “tanks exploding... sometimes with soldiers sitting on top of them.”
Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed 175 people in Lebanon, including 129 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, Israeli authorities said.
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