Hassan Nasrallah says Hezbollah could escalate response to Israel
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah Shiite leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah pledged late Saturday that he will retaliate against any future Israeli airstrike on Lebanon. "We want to tell the enemy [Israel] that any airstrike on Lebanon will be retaliated ... Our response yesterday [Friday] was directly linked to the Israeli airstrikes and its objective was clear," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
- Middle East
- Reuters
- Published Date: 09:42 | 07 August 2021
- Modified Date: 10:23 | 07 August 2021
Hassan Nasrallah -- the leader of Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah -- said that while his group had chosen to respond to Israeli airstrikes on open land, it could escalate with a different strategy in future.
Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli forces on Friday, drawing retaliatory fire from Israel into south Lebanon in the third day of cross-border back and forth amid wider tensions with Iran.
Hezbollah wanted to show that Israeli airstrikes would be responded to and in an appropriate manner, Nasrallah said, adding that the response could be in any open land in "Northern occupied Palestine," Galilee, or the Golan Heights.