The leader of Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah said on Friday that a response on “the battlefield” was “inevitable” to the Israeli attack on their stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which killed the Palestinian Hamas's number two .
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The attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut “is serious and will not go unanswered,” Hassan Nasrallah warned in a televised address, assuring that his movement would “respond” “on the battlefield.”
“The reaction is inevitable,” said the leader of Hezbollah, whose Islamist movement launches daily attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon.
Saleh al-Arouri and six other Hamas officials and leaders were killed Tuesday evening in an attack attributed to Israel on an office of the Palestinian Islamist movement, an ally of Hezbollah.
In a first speech the day after the attack, Hassan Nasrallah assured that the attack “will not go unpunished,” without giving further details.
Tuesday's strike is the first since October 7 on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital.
Israel, which did not claim it, was immediately targeted by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. An American defense official also stated that it was actually an “Israeli attack.”
“We cannot remain silent about a breach of this magnitude because it would mean that the entire Lebanon would be exposed in the future,” stressed Hassan Nasrallah.
“Our fighters from all border areas (…) will respond to this dangerous violation,” he added.
The clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, which allegedly acts in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, are limited to border areas in southern Lebanon.