Lebanon: Hezbollah chief threatens “no where safe” for Israel
Amid spiraling tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, chief Hassan Nasrallah criticised Israel in parallel with the Gaza war and simultaneously threatened Cyprus and other parts of the Mediterranean during a televised address on the 19th of June.
The Iran-backed group published what it claimed to be drone footage of sensitive military sites deep in Israeli territory, reports Reuters.
Nasrallah stated that “there will be no where safe from our missiles and drones” throughout Israel in the event that a full war broke out between the two foes. He added that the group also had “a bank of targets” that it could target in precision strikes.
As an act of solidarity with Hamas, Nasrallah said that Israel “knows that what also awaits it in the Mediterranean is very big…In the face of a battle of this magnitude, it knows that it must now wait for us on land, in the air, and at sea.”
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During the 2006 Lebanon war, the group showed that it could hit a vessel at sea by striking an Israeli warship in the Mediterranean.
Alongside his threats to Israel, Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus for the first time, accusing it of allowing the Israeli military to use its airports and bases for military exercises.
“The Cypriot government must be warned that 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 (Hezbollah) will deal with it as part of the war,” he said.
Though there was no immediate comment from authorities in Cyprus, in the past it has allowed Israel to use its vast airspace – its flight information region (FIR) – to occasionally conduct air drills, but never during conflict.
During a memorial event for a commander killed in an Israeli strike on June 12th, Nasrallah said his group would fight with “no rules” and “no ceilings” in the event of a broader war. In retaliation, Hezbollah unleashed its largest volleys of drones and rockets at nine Israeli military sites on the 13th of June, the latest in a long line of attacks since the war on the Gaza Strip broke out.
On the 18th of June, Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, warned that a decision on an all-out war with Hezbollah was coming soon.
Katz said in an X post that in the wake of threats by Nasrallah, “we are getting very close to the moment of deciding on changing the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon”.
“Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely beaten,” he added.
UN officials expressed concern at the escalation. US envoy Amos Hochstein travelled to Israel and Lebanon to urge both sides not to move into a full-scale conflict as the situation gets “serious”.
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Hezbollah says it will not halt its attacks unless there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Reuters.
