The leader of the US-designated terrorist Islamist group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Israel’s recent actions would not go unanswered with a “decisive and effective” response, amid fears of a full-scale war in the region.
For months, Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group have been exchanging attacks along the border, killing many people. On July 27, rockets were fired from Lebanon into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 people, including children.
Tensions have only increased since an Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and a strike in Tehran killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. The Palestinian group Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.
Tehran is Hezbollah’s main ally, and the Lebanese group itself is a key member of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” – a loose network of militant groups that help it confront Israel and the United States.
Tehran “feels obliged to respond, and the enemy is waiting in a state of great fear,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address on Aug. 6. He added that Hezbollah would respond “alone or in the context of a unified response by all Iranian-backed groups in the region.”
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the deaths of Shukr and Haniyeh.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 5 called it a “critical moment” for the region and said Washington was “engaged in diplomacy, virtually around the clock” to help defuse tensions, amid concerns that Iran was preparing retaliation against Israel over Haniyeh’s killing.
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