BEIRUT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) — Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that Israel will pay a heavy price for the killing of women and children in airstrikes on Nabatieh and al-Sawaneh in southern Lebanon, local television channel al- Manar.
“The enemy must expect this response because we do not tolerate harm to civilians,” Nasrallah said in a televised address, saying the response was an escalation of resistance efforts as Israel had crossed a red line by attacking civilians.
He assured that attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon would not stop until the conflict in the Gaza Strip ended.
According to Nasrallah, a day earlier, Hezbollah fired dozens of Katyusha rockets and several Falaq rockets against the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona as an initial response to the attacks on Nabatieh and al-Sawaneh.
In his speech, Nasrallah accused the United States of bloodshed in Gaza and Lebanon and said the weapons Israel used in these attacks came from Washington.
Tensions rose on the Lebanon-Israel border after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel in support of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, prompting Israel to fire heavy artillery into the southeast of Lebanon to respond.
Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have increased in recent days, leading to increased deaths of both civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
According to Lebanese security sources, the clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have left 293 dead on the Lebanese side, including 200 Hezbollah members and 56 civilians. End