Nasrallah spoke of a “blatant Israeli attack.” A “war with us will be very costly” and anyone who wages war against Lebanon will “regret it” as Hezbollah “will fight to the end”, he said. If Israel goes to war with Lebanon, “there will be no limits to Hezbollah’s fight.” “What has happened since October 7 and what will happen in the future has weakened Israel,” he said.
Nasrallah accused Israel of pursuing the “true objective” of its attacks on the Gaza Strip of expelling all Palestinians from the area. Nasrallah referred to “people who are forced to abandon their homes in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and partly in southern Lebanon.” “We saw the great dangers (…) but at the same time we also saw the resistance and the defiance (…) the refusal to give up on the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“The biggest genocide of this century”
Nasrallah accused Israel of “starving people to death and carrying out the biggest genocide of this century” against Palestinians in Gaza. He also said that “it is the Americans who are preventing the end of the war in Gaza”, fully supporting Israel in its retaliation after the Hamas attacks.
A US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Wednesday night that Aruri was the victim of an Israeli attack. Israel has not commented on the allegations. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari emphasized that Israel remains “focused on the fight against Hamas” but at the same time is “highly prepared for any scenario.”
APA/AFP Aruri was killed on Tuesday and would have been a target a long time ago
As deputy head of Hamas's political office, Aruri was the Palestinian Islamic organization's second-highest leader abroad. He died in an explosion on Tuesday night. Nasrallaha's speech was already planned. Nasrallah announced that he would address the public again on Friday. “I will discuss certain current issues on Friday instead of tonight,” he said.
Weakened government
According to a media report, the Lebanese government is in contact with Hezbollah to avoid a possible backlash. Acting Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Britain's BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday night that his government was talking to Hezbollah to “convince them that they themselves should not react.”
But Lebanon's government can only act so far. The country is currently led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati. For more than a year, the election of a president has repeatedly failed due to power struggles within the political elite.
El-Gawhary (ORF) on the new escalation in the Middle East
After the death of a leader of the Islamic group Hamas in Lebanon, concerns are growing about a new escalation in the Middle East. ORF correspondent Karim El-Gawhary analyzes how great the danger is of a direct confrontation between Iran and Israel.
New battles on the border
On Tuesday night, Hamas said it carried out its first attack on a group of Israeli soldiers near the border. There were deaths and injuries. There were new shellings on the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday. According to its own statements, the Israeli army recorded several rocket launches from the neighboring country aimed at Israeli targets. In response, the military attacked the bombing sites.
Soldiers also attacked terrorists in Lebanon and “Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure” in that country. The Shiite militia said it attacked at least five targets in Israel. Hezbollah also reported the deaths of two additional members. However, she did not say when and where exactly they died.
Israel does not want to take responsibility
“Whoever did this, it must be clear that it was not an attack on the Lebanese State. “It wasn’t even an attack on Hezbollah,” Israeli government security adviser Mark Regev told US television station MSNBC, in an apparent effort to defuse the explosive situation. The attack apparently targeted only Hamas. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya responded by saying that Aruri's murder was an act of terrorism and a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, citing Arab diplomatic circles, that progress towards reaching a “hostage agreement” is no longer possible. Negotiations are now focused on avoiding an escalation between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli newspaper wrote late on Tuesday. The “murder” changed the situation.
Report: Mossad Chief Points Out Israeli Involvement
But Mossad chief David Barnea, according to one report, pointed to Israeli involvement. Every Arab mother will know that if her son was involved in the October 7th massacre, her blood will be on his own head, Israeli newspapers quoted Barnea's words at the funeral of former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir on Wednesday. The Jerusalem Post saw this as a “clear indication” of Israeli involvement in the targeted killing of Aruri. But Barnea didn't mention him by name.