Hezbollah warns Israel against attacking Lebanon

Lebanese men raise up their hands as Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who is seen speaking through video from a secret location, during the Ashoura day ceremony, in the suburbs of Beirut on Sunday.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group would fire rockets into Israel in any future war and target cities in the country’s heartland, the group’s leader said on Sunday.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah’s warning came days after an eight-day Israeli offensive against Gaza ended with a truce. Nasrallah said Gaza militants had won “a clear victory” against Israel with their rocket bombardment.

Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut that the Fajr-5 attacks “shook Israel.” He asked “How is it (Israel) going to stand thousands of rockets that will fall on Tel Aviv and other areas if it launches an aggression against Lebanon?”

Nasrallah spoke via a video link from a secret location to tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut who gathered to mark Ashoura, the annual Shia commemoration of the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.

“The battle with us is going to be all over occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said. “From the border with Lebanon to the frontier with Jordan to the Red Sea.”

“The Israelis should listen well to me. From Kiryat Shemona to Eilat,” Nasrallah said referring to a northern Israeli town near the border with Lebanon to the southern resort town of Eilat on the Red Sea.

Since the 2006 war ended, both Israeli and Hezbollah officials have been warning each other that the next battle between the two groups will be more destructive.

Some Israeli generals had spoken of the “Dahiya doctrine,” named after the Beirut suburbs considered a Hezbollah stronghold where Israel turned dozens of buildings to piles of debris in 2006.

In August, Nasrallah said Hezbollah will transform the lives of Israelis to “hell” if Israel attacks Lebanon, adding that the group would not hesitate to hit targets that would leave tens of thousands of Israelis dead.