According to Uzi Rabi, Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, the Hezbollah leader has not yet decided what he will do. ‘’His Friday speech will be more to the point. I don’t think he has an allout war in mind.
IDF chief: Israeli preparedness “at its peak” in the north.
By JNS and European Jewish Press
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Wednesday of a “very costly” war “without limits” if the situation at the Lebanon-Israel border escalates into a full-scale conflict.
The speech by the head of the Iranian-backed terror group came a day after the targeted killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, which was attributed to Israel.
Hezbollah has been waging a low-intensity conflict against Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people in the Jewish state.
“Until now, we are fighting on the [Israel-Lebanon] front with set calculations, but if the enemy [Israel] wages war on Lebanon, our fight will be without limits, rules and regulations, and it [Israel] knows what I mean,” Nasrallah said.
“Who thinks about engaging in a war with us will regret it, God willing! The war with us will be very, very, very costly. If we have so been so far taking into consideration the Lebanese situation and national interests, if war is waged in Lebanon, the Lebanese national interests require that we engage in the war until the end without regulation,” the radical Shi’ite cleric continued.
Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike in the suburb of Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold, which also killed six other Hamas operatives. It was the first strike in the Lebanese capital attributed to Israel since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Al-Arouri was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre.
Nasrallah condemned the assassination, saying that “yesterday’s crime will not go unpunished,” adding that he would give more details about the response in another speech on Friday.
He delivered the speech to a Hezbollah ceremony in Dahiya held to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. assassination in Baghdad of Iran’s Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani and militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited the northern border and held a situation assessment meeting “We are very strongly prepared here in the north,” said Halevi. “We are very well prepared in all the theaters; at the moment we are focusing on the war against Hamas.” He added that despite the difficult circumstances, the war has produced an opportunity to change the situation very significantly in the south and in the north and as a whole in the regional posture.”
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel has thwarted Hezbollah’s operations along the border and has dealt with other challenges in the Red Sea and Syria. He added that the IDF was prepared on all fronts.
According to analysts, Nasrallah’s speech was a restrained and self justifying speech, and it could be understood that Nasrallah is not interested in war at this stage.
His need to justify joining the fighting in order to calm the Lebanese people who oppose it, by emphasizing the fact that Hezbollah, as the defender of Lebanon, serves the interests of its people. Indeed, the organization conducts “calculated fighting” in order not to expand the boundaries of the campaign and pays a heavy price for this in view of the loss of many of its operatives.
Uzi Rabi, Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Nasrallah has not yet decided what he will do. ‘’His Friday speech will be more to the point. I don’t think he has an allout war in mind. He would rather have more of the same,’’ he told European Jewish Press.