BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel Wednesday against waging war on Lebanon, a day after a strike blamed on Israel killed Hamas’s number two in the group’s southern Beirut suburbs stronghold.
“If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“We are not afraid of war,” he said, adding that “for now, we are fighting on the frontline following meticulous calculations.”
Lebanese authorities and Hamas accused Israel of killing Salah Al-Aruri in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday with six others.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on Aruri’s killing but said the military was “highly prepared for any scenario” in its aftermath.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon had largely been limited to the border area before Al-Aruri’s killing, with Hezbollah and its arch-foe exchanging near-daily fire after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
The attack sparked fears of a broader conflagration because Aruri is the most high-profile figure to be killed since fighting in Gaza began in October, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities started.
Nasrallah described the attack as a “major and dangerous crime” which “will not go unanswered and unpunished” — repeating a threat made by Hezbollah on Tuesday.
The group announced several strikes on Israeli troops and positions Wednesday, within the usual scope of the border area.
“Israel has been weakened” by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Nasrallah said, adding that the country was “now on the path to extinction.”
Nasrallah spoke in a pre-planned speech commemorating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike in Iraq.
He is set to deliver another televised speech on Friday.
Earlier Wednesday, a high-level Lebanese security official told AFP that Israel fired guided missiles from a warplane to kill Al-Aruri in a Beirut suburb.
Hamas said Al-Aruri would be buried on Thursday in Beirut’s Shatila Palestinian refugee camp.
Since hostilities began, 170 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.
Hezbollah leader warns Israel against waging war on Lebanon
https://arab.news/zxdug
Hezbollah leader warns Israel against waging war on Lebanon
- “If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions,” Nasrallah said
- Nasrallah spoke in a pre-planned speech commemorating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. general Qasem Soleimani 4 years after his death
EU warns Israel suspending Gaza NGOs would block ‘life-saving aid’
BRUSSELS: The EU warned Wednesday that Israel's threat to suspend several aid groups in Gaza from January would block "life-saving" assistance from reaching the population.
"The EU has been clear: the NGO registration law cannot be implemented in its current form," EU humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib posted on X, after Israel said several groups would be barred for failing to provide details of their Palestinian employees.
"IHL (international humanitarian law) leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need," Lahbib wrote.
NGOs had until December 31 to register under the new framework, which Israel says aims to prevent "hostile actors or supporters of terrorism" operating in the Palestinian territories, rather than impede aid.
Israeli authorities announced Tuesday that organisations which "refused to submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism" had received notice that their licences would be revoked as of January 1, with an obligation to cease all activities by March 1.
Israel has not disclosed the number of groups facing a ban, but it has specifically called out Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for failing to meet the rules. It accused the medical charity of employing two individuals with links to Palestinian armed groups.
The Israeli government told AFP earlier this month that 14 NGO requests had been rejected as of November 25.
Several NGOs said the new rules will have a major impact on aid distribution in Gaza, with humanitarian organisations saying the amount of aid entering Gaza remains inadequate.
While an accord for a ceasefire that started on October 10 stipulated the entry of 600 trucks per day, only 100 to 300 are carrying humanitarian aid, according to NGOs and the United Nations.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said last week that on average 4,200 aid trucks enter Gaza weekly, which corresponds to around 600 daily.
