Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed Friday that he would make Israel pay the price “in blood” for civilians killed in Lebanon this week, assuring that his party's precision missiles could reach the enemy country's southern tip.
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“Our women and our children who were killed (…), the enemy will pay the price for their shed blood,” said the leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement in a televised address.
His comments came after deadly Israeli strikes against southern Lebanon on Wednesday that left at least 15 people dead, including 10 civilians and five Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count based on civil defense figures.
The attacks were carried out in retaliation for an unclaimed rocket attack from Lebanon on a military base in northern Israel that killed a female soldier.
The Islamist group announced Thursday evening that it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel as an initial response to Israeli attacks.
Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the border fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army began more than four months ago.
“We believe that what happened was intentional,” Hassan Nasrallah said of the civilians killed, reiterating that “the enemy aims to put pressure on the resistance” (Hezbollah, editor's note). this ends the fighting.
“Response to the massacre”
“The response to the massacre must be to continue resistance on the front lines and escalate fighting,” he said.
He warned that his formation had “precision missiles” that could cover Israeli territory “from Kiryat Shmona (north) to Eilat (south).”
Hassan Nasrallah warned that this time Hezbollah would also target civilians in retaliation and not “positions (…) or spy equipment” as it had mainly done so far.
Hezbollah opened a front on the Israeli-Lebanese border to support its ally, the Palestinian Hamas, which has been at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip since the Islamist movement's unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7.
The powerful Iran-backed movement claimed responsibility Friday for at least five attacks on Israeli military positions along the border and announced the deaths of three of its fighters, according to a new report.
The group, an ally of Hezbollah, said three fighters from the Shiite Amal movement were also killed in Israeli attacks on the night from Thursday to Friday.
The Amal Movement, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, also announced that the funerals of the seven civilian members of the same family killed in an attack on their building in Nabatiyé (south) on Wednesday would take place on Saturday.
According to an AFP count, at least 269 people have been killed in southern Lebanon in more than four months, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other allied groups, but also 40 civilians.
According to the army, ten soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.