Hassan Nasrallah’s speech was eagerly awaited, the day after the assassination in Beirut of Saleh Al-Arouri, the number two in the Hamas political bureau. Wednesday January 3, in his third speech since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, on October 7, 2023, the leader of pro-Iranian Hezbollah warned Israel and assured “do not fear war”.
“For the moment, we are fighting on the front in a calculated manner (…), but if the enemy thinks of launching a war against Lebanon, we will fight without limits, without restrictions, without borders”, assured Hassan Nasrallah in this speech broadcast live on television. Hassan Nasrallah said the assassination of the leader of Hamas, his ally, was “a dangerous crime” and assured that he “would not go unpunished”, repeating the terms of a Hezbollah press release published after the attack Tuesday evening. The Israeli army did not claim responsibility for the strike but said on Wednesday it was preparing to “any scenario”. On Wednesday evening, it announced in a press release that fighter planes had “hit a number of Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon, including terrorist infrastructure and a military building”without further details.
Hezbollah called the assassination “serious aggression against Lebanon” but also of “serious development in the war between the enemy and the axis of resistance”, an expression designating Iran and its regional allies hostile to Israel. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “want to drag Lebanon into a new phase of confrontation”.
“Devastating consequences”
UN peacekeepers patrolling the Lebanese side of the border warned on Wednesday against “devastating consequences” what could be an escalation between Israel and the powerful Shiite party. “We continue to implore all parties to stop their shooting and all influential interlocutors to call for restraint”said the deputy spokesperson for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Kandice Ardiel, in a statement.
The German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called on its nationals to quickly leave Lebanon “by the quickest means”. “A further aggravation of the situation and an extension of the conflict cannot be ruled out, particularly after the assassination of the vice-president of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri (…). This is particularly true for the southern parts of Lebanon, up to and including the urban areas of southern Beirut.writes the ministry on its site. “The security situation in the region is very volatile”, he insists. This warning was formulated after a meeting on Wednesday of the German government’s crisis unit.