Srinagar- Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that pager and walkie-talkie explosions by Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday which killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 in Lebanon are a a “major aggression” against his people and declaration of war.
In a highly anticipated speech, Nasrallah said this week’s attacks were a genocide and a war crime against Lebanon in addition to a declaration of war. “Israel would face tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not,” Hezbollah chief declared.
During Nasrallah’s speech, in which he called the blasts an “unprecedented blow” and a “test” for Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barriers over Beirut which shook buildings.
Hezbollah’s leader accused Israel of carrying out “genocide” with pager and walkie-talkie explosions, saying Israel’s willful intent was to kill 4,000 Lebanese people within minutes but many of the pagers were out of service, turned off or stored away.
Explosions “happened in hospitals, in pharmacies, in markets, in shops, in houses, in cars…in streets where many civilians were along with women and children”.
“The enemy has crossed all red lines and all laws in this attack. This is a massive terrorist attack, genocide, a massacre,” Nasrallah said.
Israel has not publicly commented on the pager and hand-held radio explosions, which killed more than 30 people and wounded thousands of others Tuesday and Wednesday in Lebanon, but it’s widely believed Israel was behind the attacks.
Hezbollah, which has been using low-tech devices like pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance and tracking, suffered one of its most serious security blows in the round of explosions that burned up homes, cars and buildings across Lebanon. It pointed to the Israeli penetration of a supply chain for the devices, which appeared to be laced with explosives and activated remotely.
Nasrallah said Thursday that Hezbollah “received a heavy blow” from the targeted attacks this week but blamed it on superior technology and intelligence from Israel because it has the backing of the U.S. and the Western security alliance NATO.
“There is no doubt that we were subject to a big strike security-wise and human-wise, and unprecedented in the history of the resistance in Lebanon,” he said. “It might also be unprecedented in the world.”
“I can tell you with utmost certainty that this attack did not break us and will not break us. On the contrary, it will only increase our resolve and determination to continue on in this battle,” he said.
Nasrallah said the aim of the attack is to dissuade the Lebanese resistance from continuing its operations against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
He vowed to keep up Hezbollah’s fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
Nasrallah emphasized that, regardless of the potential consequences, the resistance in Lebanon will steadfastly continue to support Gaza in its struggle.
“The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops” despite “all this blood spilt,” he said.
Nasrallah addressed Israeli officials’ promises to return thousands of Israelis displaced by exchanges of fire across the border with Lebanon to their homes.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” he said, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.”
He added that he hoped Israel invades southern Lebanon, as it will create a “historic opportunity” for Hezbollah.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging cross-border fire for nearly a year in a conflict tied to the ongoing war in Gaza. But the fighting in Israel’s north and Lebanon’s south has evolved into a diplomatic crisis of its own, with Israeli officials pledging to potentially directly fight Hezbollah to return some 80,000 displaced residents if a solution is not reached soon.
Hezbollah has vowed not to stop its attacks while Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas rages in Gaza, even as the Lebanese militant group has suffered from multiple deadly attacks from Israel, losing hundreds of fighters and top officials, including its top commander, Fuad Shukr, in July.
Nasrallah said Thursday that “the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting and standing with the people of Gaza and the West Bank” even after the pager and radio explosions.
“The aim behind this attack, the framework within which this attack took place, and the aim behind it on Tuesday and Wednesday, was to separate between the two fronts,” he said, but “Lebanon’s front will not stop before an end to the aggression on Gaza.”
Israel set a war objective this week to return its residents to the north, spurring fears that a potential invasion of Lebanon is imminent.
Nasrallah vowed that Israel “won’t be able to return the inhabitants” and said if they come into Lebanon that troops will meet an “abyss and hell” from Hezbollah fighters.
“The only way is to put an end to your aggression,” he said. “Otherwise nothing, neither military escalation nor killing, nor assassinations nor a full scale war, can return the inhabitants to the border.”
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