Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has issued a stern warning to Israel, threatening a “no holds barred, no rules and no limits” war in the event of a major Israeli offensive against Lebanon.
Nasrallah's comments on Wednesday come amid rising tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border after Israeli officials reiterated that the country is ready for an all-out war against Hezbollah.
“Everything that the enemy says and the threats and warnings that the mediators bring – and what is said in the Israeli media – about a war in Lebanon does not scare us,” Nasrallah said in a speech via video.
He said Israel is the party that should be “scared.”
Israeli Foreign Affairs Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday raised the possibility of a major conflict with the Lebanese group after Hezbollah released surveillance drone images showing major infrastructure and military sites in northern Israel.
“We are very close to the moment of the decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit,” Katz wrote in a social media post.
“The State of Israel will pay a price on the front and on the home front, but with a strong and united nation, and with all the power of the State. [Israeli military]“We will restore security to the residents of the north.”
On Wednesday, Nasrallah underlined Hezbollah's military capabilities, saying the group has acquired new weapons and has a large number of drones that it manufactures locally.
“The enemy knows well that we have prepared for the most difficult days,” he said. “The enemy knows well what awaits him and that is why he has been deterred until now. And he knows there will be no room in the [country] that would be saved from our rockets and drones. And they will not be indiscriminate bombings: each rocket, a target.”
Nasrallah also suggested that Hezbollah could send ground forces into Israeli territory.
“The enemy greatly fears that the resistance will invade northern Israel, and this is a permanent possibility that remains present in the context of any war imposed on Lebanon,” he said.
The Iran-aligned Lebanese organization began attacking military bases in northern Israel the day after the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian armed groups.
Nasrallah stressed that the Lebanese front is making a difference in the broader confrontation against Israel and diverting Israeli military resources from Gaza.
Threat to Cyprus
Nasrallah also issued a warning to Cyprus, a member of the European Union that is located in the eastern Mediterranean, west of the Lebanese and Israeli coasts.
He said the group has information that Israel is conducting military exercises in Cyprus on similar terrain in southern Lebanon.
Nasrallah added that Israel plans to use airports and bases in Cyprus for military purposes if its military infrastructure is attacked during a major war.
“Opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means that the Cypriot government has become part of the war, and the resistance will address it as part of the war,” he said without elaborating.
Nasrallah also warned that the group would open a naval front against Israel in the Mediterranean.
He added that Hezbollah will continue its ongoing attacks on Israeli targets and said the solution to the crisis is “clear”: end the Israeli war in Gaza.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza since October, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel launched the war on October 7 after Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza, led an attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera count based on Israeli statistics, and taking captives. about 250 more.
Nasrallah defended Hamas for making its own demands over a U.S.-led multi-phase proposal that Washington said would lead to a “lasting ceasefire.”
He said the U.S. plan has an “obvious” loophole that would allow Israel to resume the war after the first stage of the proposal, which would involve the release of some Israeli captives held by Hamas.
