Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned on Wednesday of a “fight to the end” if Israel declares war on Lebanon, a day after the second-in-command of Palestinian Hamas was killed in Beirut.
“We are not afraid of war… Whoever contemplates war with us will regret it,” Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address, 24 hours after the blow attributed to Israel that killed Saleh al-Aruri and five others of Hamas operatives in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hassan Nasrallah underlined that the killing of Saleh al-Aruri constitutes a “dangerous crime” which he assured “will not go unpunished”.
It also sent a message to Israel that it is not going to achieve its goals in the war with Hamas. What happened after October 7 and what will follow in the future is weakening Israel, he claimed.
Almost three months after the start of its military operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel has not recorded any strategic success, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah claimed. “Last night, they tried to present an image of victory, with the treacherous assassination of Sheikh Saleh al-Aruri. But where do you see her in Gaza?’ the Hezbollah leader said in a televised speech.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah paid tribute to Saleh al-Aruri and his comrades who were killed yesterday Tuesday in Beirut, expressing his condolences to Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.
He also paid tribute to the dozens of victims of the double bombing in the Iranian city of Kerman, near the grave of General Qassem Soleimani – the head of the Revolutionary Guards special forces, who was killed by a US drone in 2020 in Baghdad.
Linking the victims of Israeli and American attacks in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, he argued that “your blood, your sacrifices, and what you have endured” will not be in vain and will lead to positive developments in the wider Middle East region.
“Weakened” Israel
The Hezbollah leader claimed that the October 7 attack launched by Hamas on Israel revived the Palestinian issue, bringing it back to the forefront of the news, as it had been almost forgotten by the international community. What happened after October 7 and what will follow in the future is weakening Israel, he claimed.
Sheikh Nasrallah threatened that if Israel declares war on Lebanon, Hezbollah’s response will be unprecedented.
He stressed that the resistance movements are not manipulated by Iran, citing as an example the Houthis of Yemen, whom he congratulated for the attacks they are launching against Israel and ships in the Red Sea.
Source: cnn.gr
