Hezbollah threatens Israel with "surprises"
Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel with “surprises” on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had “surprise plans” to deal with the Iranian-backed group.
© Lusa
Mundo Hezbollah
"It is our turn to talk about surprises. He (Netanyahu) should expect surprises from us (...)", replied the leader of the Islamist group in a speech broadcast live.
Read Also: Hezbollah group fired dozens of rockets into Israel (Portuguese version)
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, on October 7, Hezbollah has carried out daily attacks against Israel, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas. The Israeli army responded with attacks in Lebanon and against Hezbollah officials.
"We have eliminated hundreds of Hezbollah agents," Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, adding: "We have detailed, important and even surprising plans" for this northern front.
On Friday, Hassan Nasrallah said that he would like to tell the Israeli ruler and the "enemy government" that "all eventualities and all scenarios that they could resort to" have been studied and considered.
Hamas and Iran's other allies in the region have "surprised" Israel, which "has the most powerful army and intelligence services in the region," Nasrallah said, citing the October attack and the opening of the Lebanese front the following day.
"Yemen surprised you," with its Houthi rebels attacking ships in the Red Sea, just as "Iraq surprised you, as did Iran, when they bombed its consulate" in Damascus, he added.
On April 1, an attack attributed to Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing seven Iranian soldiers, and on April 13 Tehran retaliated with an unprecedented attack against Israel.
Speaking at a ceremony to pay tribute to Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi and his companions who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday, the Hezbollah leader reiterated that his group had opened the front with Israel "to support Gaza."
"We want the war to end at any moment," he said, arguing that Netanyahu "is determined to go to war, he will lead his country to disaster."
The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip is the result of Israel's retaliation to the unprecedented October attack by Hamas and has already caused more than 35,700 deaths, according to updated figures from local authorities.
The conflict has also displaced nearly two million people, plunging the overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian enclave into a severe humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a "catastrophic hunger situation" that is claiming victims - "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN in food security studies in the world.
In October, Hamas killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, and took 252 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Descarregue a nossa App gratuita.
Oitavo ano consecutivo Escolha do Consumidor para Imprensa Online e eleito o produto do ano 2024.
* Estudo da e Netsonda, nov. e dez. 2023 produtodoano- pt.com