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Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief says response to Israeli attacks will be strong

  • Militant group has vowed to avenge Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut last week, prompting worries of a full-blown war

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Smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment of a Lebanese border village on Tuesday. the same day Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel. Photo: AFP
Reuters

Hezbollah’s response to Israeli attacks will be strong and effective, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the powerful Lebanese militant group, said on Tuesday.

He was speaking in an address marking the one-week memorial of the group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike last week in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Iran “finds itself obliged to respond, and the enemy is waiting in a great state of dread”, Hassan Nasrallah said in the televised address, adding that Hezbollah will respond “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed groups in the region, “whatever the consequences”.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers a televised speech at a memorial ceremony to mark one week since the killing of late Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers a televised speech at a memorial ceremony to mark one week since the killing of late Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Hezbollah said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel on Tuesday, and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.
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The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted. It said several civilians were injured to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya. Television footage showed one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.

In a statement, the Israeli military said sirens sounded around Acre, but that turned out to be a false alarm. It said its air force struck two Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon.

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Fears are rising that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war following vows by Hezbollah to avenge Shukr’s killing, and by Iran to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
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