Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed a response to Israel’s attack in southern Beirut earlier this week, which killed the group’s top commander Fu’ad Shukr and at least five civilians, including two children, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
“This was not just an assassination operation. This was an assault,” Nasrallah said in a fiery speech Thursday afternoon during a funeral procession for Shukr in southern Beirut.
Nasrallah said the response would go beyond the scope of the daily border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces that have been ongoing during Israel’s war with Hamas, adding that the retaliation will be “studied.”
He stopped short of declaring war but said Israel had crossed “red lines” in Beirut, as well as in Tehran with the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, which Iran and Hamas blamed on Israel. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility for the killing.
“They’ve picked a fight with all of us,” Nasrallah said, referring to the Iran-backed network of armed groups that spans Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iraq.
“On all supportive fronts, we have now entered a new phase, different than the past phase,” he said, referring to the Iran-backed axis.
Remember: Shukr is one of three high-profile figure in Iran-backed militant groups to be killed in recent weeks.
Haniyeh was killed Wednesday by an explosive device planted two months before the explosion, a source tells CNN. And Israel says a strike last month in Gaza killed Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing.
