Hezbollah threatens war with Israel
Foreign Office: Germans should leave Lebanon quickly
January 3, 2024, 10:03 p.m
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Israel kills a Hamas leader in Lebanese territory. Hezbollah boss Nasrallah wants to take revenge for this and threatens that people are not afraid of war. The Foreign Office is calling on Germans to leave the country because of the escalation. Meanwhile, the government in Lebanon is trying to prevent something worse from happening.
Due to the aggravated situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Foreign Office has asked German nationals to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible. Germans who are still in the country should stay in the Elephant crisis preparedness list register and leave “as quickly as possible,” the Foreign Office wrote on Platform X. “An escalation at the border between Israel and Lebanon cannot be ruled out,” it said after the federal government’s crisis team met.
On Tuesday evening, Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri was killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against an escalation of the conflict with the neighboring country in a highly anticipated speech. His militia is allied with Hamas.
In his speech, Nasrallah described the killing of the senior Hamas official as a “blatant Israeli attack.” “The murder of Al-Arouri is a dangerous crime that will not go without reaction and punishment,” said the Hezbollah chief. “We are not afraid of war and we do not hesitate.”
Israel’s army said it registered several rocket launches from the neighboring country on Wednesday that were aimed at Israeli targets. In response, the military attacked the locations of the shelling.
Government in Lebanon wants to prevent war
Lebanon’s acting foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told British radio station BBC 4 that his government was speaking to the Shiite militia Hezbollah to “convince them that they should not react themselves.”
The government in Beirut fears a possible expansion of the conflict. “We are very worried, the Lebanese do not want to be drawn into it, even Hezbollah does not want to be drawn into a regional war,” said Minister Bou Habib. He called on Western states to “put pressure on Israel to stop all its violence and all its actions, not only in Lebanon, not only in Beirut, but also in Gaza.”