A picture seize taken from Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV on June 19, 2024, reveals Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah giving a televised handle from an undisclosed location in Lebanon. Nasrallah on June 19 warned “no place” in Israel could be spared in case of full-blown warfare towards the Lebanese group, and threatened Cyprus if it opened its airports to Israel. Agence France-Presse
BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned “no place” in Israel could be spared in case of full-blown warfare towards the Lebanese group, and threatened Cyprus if it opened its airports to Israel.
“The enemy is aware of nicely that we’ve ready ourselves for the worst… and that no place… will likely be spared our rockets,” Nasrallah stated in a televised handle.
Israel should count on “us on land, by sea and by air”, he stated.
“The enemy actually fears that the resistance will penetrate Galilee” in northern Israel, he stated, including that this was attainable “within the context of a warfare that might be imposed on Lebanon”.
READ: Israel minister warns Hezbollah of destruction in ‘complete warfare’
Israel and Hezbollah, a strong Lebanese motion allied with Hamas, have traded near-daily cross-border hearth because the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 assault on Israel which triggered warfare within the Gaza Strip.
The exchanges between the foes, which final went to warfare in 2006, have escalated in current weeks, and the Israeli army stated Tuesday that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon have been authorised and validated”.
Earlier, International Minister Israel Katz had warned of Hezbollah’s destruction in a “complete warfare”.
Nasrallah stated his Iran-backed group had been knowledgeable that Israel may use airports and bases in Cyprus if Hezbollah struck Israeli airports.
READ: Hezbollah rains rockets on Israel after strike kills commander
Cyprus, a European Union member, has good relations with Israel and Lebanon, and lies near the coast of each nations.
“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to focus on Lebanon would imply that the Cypriot authorities is a part of the warfare, and the resistance will cope with it as a part of the warfare,” Nasrallah threatened.
Britain has additionally retained sovereign management over two base areas in its former colony Cyprus below the phrases of the treaties that granted the island independence in 1960.
‘New weapons’
Nasrallah’s statements got here a day after US envoy Amos Hochstein — who in 2022 brokered a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon — referred to as for “pressing” de-escalation throughout a go to to Lebanon.
He additionally met with senior officers in Israel on his regional tour.
“Every thing the enemy says and that the mediators convey, together with with threats of warfare on Lebanon… this doesn’t scare us,” Nasrallah stated.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah launched a greater than nine-minute video displaying aerial footage purportedly taken by the motion over northern Israel, together with what it stated have been delicate army, defence and vitality services and infrastructure within the metropolis and port of Haifa.
Nasrallah stated the footage was taken by a drone that “flew for lengthy hours” over the Haifa port.
He additionally warned that his group had solely used “part of” its weapons since October.
“We now have obtained new weapons,” Nasrallah stated, with out elaborating.
“We now have developed a few of our weapons… and we’re protecting others for the times that can come,” he stated.
“Years in the past we talked about 100,000 fighters… at present, we’ve drastically exceeded” that quantity, Nasrallah added.
“The resistance has extra (manpower) than it wants… even within the worst circumstances,” he stated.
Hezbollah on Wednesday claimed a number of assaults on Israeli troops and positions in northern Israel, and introduced the loss of life of 4 of its fighters.
The cross-border violence has killed a minimum of 478 individuals in Lebanon, most of them fighters but in addition together with 93 civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally.
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Israeli authorities say a minimum of 15 troopers and 11 civilians have been killed within the nation’s north.
