Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks at the funeral of Fuad Shukr on August 1, 2024 (Al-Manar TV\Screenshot)
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on August 1 that the war against Israel has entered a “new phase,” speaking at the funeral of the group’s senior commander Fuad Shukr who was killed in an Israeli strike that hit the Lebanese capital, Beirut, two days earlier.
“We are facing a major battle that has gone beyond the issue of support fronts, whose battlefields include Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Gaza Strip,” Nasrallah said addressing mourners via video link.
“I say to the enemy: Laugh a little now, but you will soon be crying a lot because you do not know which lines you have crossed,” he added.
The leader also declared that the killing of Shukr -who was reportedly his top military advisor- and the assassination of the political chief of the Palestinian Hamas Movement in the Iranian capital, Tehran, the next day had pushed the ongoing war to “a new phase, different from the previous phase, and the escalation depends on the behavior and reactions of the enemy.”
“Today, they are the ones who have to await the revenge of the honorable people of the Ummah [Islamic nation],” Nasrallah said.
“The enemy and those who stand behind him must await our coming retaliation, which will be certain, Inshallah [‘God willing’]. There is no debate regarding this, and between us and you will be the days, the nights, and the battlefield,” he vowed.
The leader added, “will this retaliation come at the same time or in different phases? Israel doesn’t know where it’s heading.”
A recent report by The New York Times revealed that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct strike on Israel in response to the assassination of Haniyeh and that the country was considering carrying out a joint operation along with its allies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Nasrallah also affirmed in his address that attacks on northern Israel “will continue from tomorrow, and this has nothing to do with responding to the assassinations [of Shukr], but rather a continuation of the battle since October 8.”
In addition, he vowed that Hezbollah will continue cross-border fire until Israel reaches a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza.
All in all, the Middle East appears to be on the brink of an all-out war as a result of Israel’s recent attacks against Lebanon and Iran. A joint strike by Tehran and its allies, including Hezbollah, against military targets in Israel appears to be very possible.
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