Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened on Friday that his armed group possesses rockets capable of reaching “anywhere” in Israel as the IDF says that its forces drilled war scenarios on the northern front.
Read more:
“The Americans and Israelis should know that they are also facing a people in Palestine that will not back down, no matter how many victims there’ll be,” he told his supporters via video link at a memorial event commemorating his terrorist group’s “martyred commanders” who were killed in recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
"Hezbollah possesses tremendous and precise missile capabilities that can reach anywhere from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat. Our goal in the axis of resistance has always been and will remain to defeat the enemy in this battle. The enemy's defeat is its failure to achieve its objectives."
Nasrallah also vowed vengeance for a series of reprisal attacks by Israel on the southern Lebanon towns of Nabatieh and Souaneh that killed several civilians earlier this week according to Lebanese media. The Israeli strikes came in response to a deadly rocket barrage on the IDF Northern Command base in Safed that killed Staff Sergeant Omer Benjo.
"It led to the death of civilians. The killing of fighters and soldiers is part of the conflict, and it's natural for martyrs to die—but the enemy went too far, and the price will be blood," he said.
3 View gallery
Nabatieh home struck by IDF this week, southern Lebanon
(Photo: Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
"What happened in Nabatieh and Souaneh was deliberate, and the enemy could have avoided the killing of civilians. We do not tolerate harm to civilians, and the response to the massacre must be the continuation of escalation and action on the front. Our women and children have been killed in these days – and the enemy will pay the price, not with attacks toward military outposts."
Earlier on Friday, the IDF reported that Golani Brigade soldiers, who began a readiness enhancement operation at the northern border earlier this week, have conducted training exercises in terrain that simulates the northern frontier alongside reserve units from the 146th and 210th Divisions.
The army added that the exercises included joint drills of armored, infantry engineering and artillery forces. The soldiers practiced bush warfare in mountainous and complex terrains, as well as camouflage techniques, combat in open areas and evacuation of wounded under harsh weather conditions.
Additionally, the IDF reported that a situational assessment meeting, led by Northern Command chief Major General Uri Gordin, was held at an Air Force base this week.