(Bloomberg) -- Iran-backed Hezbollah’s leader said the group’s battle against Israel has entered a new phase and vowed to respond following the killing of a top commander of the militant group in Beirut.
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Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said Israel’s assassination of his senior adviser Fuad Shukr in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday and the subsequent killing of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran crossed his red lines, saying the conflict now is an “open battle on all fronts.”
“We are now facing a major battle that has surpassed the idea of support fronts,” he said, reiterating the only way to stop escalation in the region would be for Israel to end the war in Gaza.
Nasrallah stopped short of describing the killings as an act of war and said his group fights both in anger and with “logic and wisdom,” somewhat in line with the group’s declared intention not to widen the fighting with Israel.
Hezbollah has been firing missiles and mortars into Israel almost daily since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Nasrallah said his group has halted attacks against Israel in the past two days after the assassination but they will resume Friday as usual. The response to Shukr’s killing was “inevitable,” he said.
Nasrallah was speaking during the funeral of Shukr in Beirut, where thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered and took part in the procession that followed their leader’s speech.
The Israeli assault in Beirut, which Nasrallah said killed seven people including Shukr and two children, was a response to a deadly rocket assault in the Golan Heights over the weekend.
Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike on a football field in the Israel-controlled region. Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the US, denied responsibility.
Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah have all pledged retaliation against Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military is now on a heightened level of alert to defend against possible attacks.
The last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 left more than 1,000 dead in Lebanon, and more than 100 in Israel, as well as triggering mass displacement and infrastructure damage.
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