The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Thursday said it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon around the same time when its leader Hassan Nasrallah was addressing the group’s adherents and Lebanese people.
Nasrallah was addressing the group’s adherents after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon in unprecedented attacks this week, killing 37 people and wounding more than 2,900.
Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut during a speech by Hezbollah’s leader, according to Lebanese state media.
“The IDF is currently striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to degrade Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them and used civilians as human shields—having turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” the IDF said in a press release.
The IDF vowed to help displaced Israelis return to northern Israel’s areas that share a border with Lebanon.
“The IDF is operating to bring security to northern Israel in order to enable the return of residents to their homes and achieve war goals,” it said.
However, Nasrallah in his speech vowed that displaced Israelis will never be able to return to northern Israel.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” Hassan Nasrallah said adressing Israel, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border”.
Israel later said two of its soldiers were killed by latest Hezbollah strikes across the Lebanon border.
The leader of Hezbollah acknowledged that his group had suffered a “major and unprecedented” blow after thousands of operatives’ communication devices exploded across Lebanon in deadly attacks it blamed on Israel.
Describing the attacks as a “massacre” and as a possible “act of war”, Nasrallah said Israel would face “tough retribution and a just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not”.
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been fighting a war in Gaza since its October 7 attack on Israel.
For nearly a year, the focus of Israel’s firepower has been on Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.
But its troops have also been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants along its northern border, killing hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens in Israel.
The exchanges of fire have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Nasrallah vowed to keep up Hezbollah’s fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
“The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops” despite “all this blood spilt,” he said.
(with AFP inputs)
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