JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday warned Hezbollah that launching a war would result in widespread destruction in Lebanon similar to that in Gaza, where Israel battled Hamas.
“If it (Hezbollah) makes this kind of mistake here, the ones who will pay the price will be first and foremost Lebanese citizens,” Gallant told soldiers on Israel’s northern border in remarks relayed by his office.
“What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”
The head of Hezbollah said on Saturday that his armed group had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel in recent days and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.
It was Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s second speech since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October.
In his first address earlier this month, he said there was a possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a full-fledged war.
Nasrallah said on Saturday there had been “an upgrade” in Hezbollah’s operations along its front with Israel.
“There has been a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size, and the number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons,” he said in a televised address.
He said Hezbollah had used a missile known as the Burkan, describing its explosives payload as between 300 kg to 500 kg, and confirmed the group had used weaponized drones for the first time.
Nasrallah said the group had also struck the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona for the first time in retaliation for the killing of three girls and their grandmother earlier this month.
“This front will remain active,” he pledged.
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since Oct. 8, with at least 70 of its fighters killed. Several civilians have also been killed.
But the tit-for-tat shelling has mainly been restricted to the border, and Hezbollah has mostly struck military targets.
Hezbollah on Friday attacked northern Israel with three suicide drones after an Israeli strike in central Syria killed seven Hezbollah fighters.
Nasrallah also blasted the US over the Israel-Hamas war, saying it is the only country that can stop Israel’s broad offensive on the Gaza Strip but doesn’t do so.
He said attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, which Washington says have reached more than 40 rockets and suicide drone attacks, will continue until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
