Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah during his speech. Screengrab, via Al-Manar TV.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed on January 3 to respond to the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Hamas Movement, and warned Israel of a fight “without limits” if it decides to start a war against Lebanon.
Nasrallah was speaking during an event, which had been pre-planned to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp general Qassem Soleimani by the United States in Iraq.
“If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions,” Nasrallah said. “We are not afraid of war … For now … we are fighting on the frontline following meticulous calculations.”
Al-Arouri was killed along with six other members of Hamas in a drone strike that targeted the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of Hezbollah, on January 2. Both Hamas and Hezbollah held Israel responsible for the assassination.
Nasrallah described the assassination as a “major and dangerous crime,” stressing that it “will not go unanswered and unpunished.”
The leader noted that the drone strike that killed al-Arouri was “the first time they [Israel] targeted the southern suburb in this way since 2006,” referring to the war of that year which saw the near complete destruction of Dahiyeh.
Israel had sent “messages” to indicate it “did not intend to target Lebanon or Hezbollah,” but was rather “settling scores” with Hamas leaders, Nasrallah added.
Israel has vowed to target all Hamas leaders after the October 7 attack from the Gaza Strip, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage.
Hezbollah and its allies, including Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions, have been launching attacks against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from southern Lebanon since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. On January 3, the group announced 11 cross-border attacks.
The border clashes have resulted in four civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of nine IDF soldiers. From its side, Hezbollah has named 138 fighters who have been killed during the same period, nine of them on January 3 and 4. In addition, 24 Palestinians, a Lebanese soldier and at least 19 civilians and three journalists have been killed.
