BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that would allow it to target and destroy more critical Israeli military and infrastructure positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the powerful group’s leader warned on Wednesday.
Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the monthslong cross-border conflict simmering between Hezbollah and Israel appears to be reaching a boiling point, and a day after a top U.S. envoy met Lebanese officials in his latest attempt to ease tensions.
“We now have new weapons. But I won’t say what they are,” Nasrallah said in a televised address commemorating a top Hezbollah field commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. “When the decision is made, they will be seen on the front lines.”
Hezbollah has used locally manufactured explosive drones for the first time since the start of the Israel war on Gaza in October, as well as surface-to-air missiles to chase off Israeli jets.
In his speech, Nasrallah said in 2021 that Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters, but now he said the number is much higher, without elaborating. He also said he has rejected offers from allied countries and militias in the region that could add tens of thousands to his ranks.
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, visited Israeli air-defense soldiers near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday, saying Israel was aware of Hezbollah’s capabilities demonstrated in the video and claimed that Israel has solutions for these threats.
“We of course have infinitely greater capabilities,” he said. “I think the enemy is only familiar with a few of them and (we) will confront them at the right time.”
Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian resistance, has been exchanging strikes with Israel almost daily since the Israeli war on Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, with the aim to stop the Israeli invasion of the embattled Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah’s attacks escalated after Israel expanded its offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah in May, and spiked further in June after an Israeli strike killed high-ranking Hezbollah commander Taleb Sami Abdullah, the most senior commander killed so far during the Israeli war on Gaza.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it has “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, although the decision to actually launch such an operation would have to come from the country’s political leadership.
The warnings by both sides followed a visit by President Biden’s senior adviser Amos Hochstein, who met with officials in Lebanon and Israel in his latest attempt to deescalate tensions. Hochstein told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that it was a “very serious situation” and that a diplomatic solution to prevent a larger war was urgent.
Nasrallah said a wider war with Lebanon would have regional implications and that Hezbollah would attack any other country in the region that assisted Israel in the war effort, citing Cyprus, which has hosted Israeli forces for training exercises. In his speech Nasrallah Said that Cyprus might allow Israel to use its bases in event of a wider war in the region, and in this case Cyprus will be a legitimate target.
Only a permanent ceasefire in Gaza would halt the Lebanon-Israel border fighting or the attacks on Western and Israel-linked targets from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iraqi militias allied with Hezbollah.
Israel views the Hezbollah group as its most direct threat, and the two fought a 33-day war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate. Hezbollah’s military capabilities have grown significantly since then, and the United States and Israel estimate the group, along with other Lebanese militant factions, has about 150,000 missiles and rockets. Hezbollah also has been working on precision-guided missiles.
– AP wire service contributed to this report
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