“If Israeli tanks come to Lebanon, it will not only be that there will be a shortage of tanks, but that there will be no tanks at all,” Nasrallah said. “Resistance missiles will target new Israeli settlements that have not been targeted before.”
The fighting on Israel’s northern border began just hours after a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities outside the Gaza Strip on October 7, with Hezbollah firing rockets in support of Hamas. The fighting has resulted in deaths on both sides, damage to agricultural and dairy farms, and the displacement of border towns.
Israeli military leaders have been planning to attack Lebanon for months but both sides say they prefer a diplomatic solution, and Hezbollah has long maintained it will not consider halting attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
“As long as the aggression against Gaza and its people and various forms of resistance continue, our front in Lebanon will not stop,” Nasrallah said on Wednesday.
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Nasrallah struck a triumphant tone in his speech, claiming that attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had damaged the Israeli economy and left thousands of Israeli soldiers seriously injured.
according to Israeli casualtiesOver 4,000 soldiers were wounded, over 600 of them seriously.
Gunfights continued on the border overnight. Israeli Press Hezbollah fired around 65 projectiles into Israeli territory, most of which were neutralised by air defense forces and no injuries were reported, after which the IDF struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Over the past month, several Hezbollah commanders have been killed by the IDF, sparking heavy rocket attacks in retaliation.
The firefights on the Israeli-Lebanese border and Hezbollah threats come at a time when Israeli forces are stretched thin on multiple fronts.
A ground invasion of Lebanon would force the IDF into a larger force. Fully equipped Hezbollah’s military power is greater than the military forces we currently face in Gaza.
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A group representing Israeli hostage families called on the prime minister to explain his reported comments in the Knesset that there was no need to rush into a deal. “The hostages are suffering, but they are not dead.” The statement from the forum said the comments were “deeply hurtful to the hostages’ families, factually incorrect and dangerously irresponsible.” The group said the hostages’ lives were at risk and an agreement must be reached immediately.
The hostages’ parents spoke before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks. After talks with the Israeli government on Wednesday, they were optimistic about the return of their daughter, Lili Elbagh. “We spoke with Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer last week, and he told us that the conditions were in place for a workable agreement,” said Eli Elbagh, Lili’s father. “Dermer sent us off feeling optimistic.”
Hostage Noah Al-Ghamani, who was rescued in June, joins Prime Minister Netanyahu He will visit the United States next week to address Congress. Israeli media Al-Ghamani will reportedly be accompanied by her father, as well as the families of hostages and victims of the October 7 Hamas attack.
Hamas and other extremist groups planned and carried out “coordinated” attacks. Human Rights Watch reported that the attack on Israeli civilians on October 7: The report released Wednesday After months of interviews with survivors, hostages, emergency workers and other witnesses, the rights groups alleged that the attack involved a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” the use of civilians as human shields, and cruel and inhuman treatment.
At least 38,794 people have died and 89,364 People injured in Gaza since the war began, of Gaza Ministry of Health Israel estimates that about 1,200 people, including more than 300 soldiers, were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack. 326 soldiers They have been killed since the start of the military operation in Gaza.
Lior Soroka, Shira Rubin and Bryan Pietsch contributed to this report.
