BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah will hit new targets in Israel if it keeps killing civilians in Lebanon, the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday, noting a spike in the number of non-combatants killed in Lebanon in recent days.
Five civilians, all Syrians and including three children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday and at least three Lebanese civilians were killed the day before, according to state media and security sources.
“Continuing to target civilians will push the Resistance to launch missiles at settlements that were not previously targeted,” Nasrallah said, in comments made during a televised address to mark the Shi’ite holy day Ashoura.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, refers to all Israeli population centres as settlements and does not recognise Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hezbollah announced a “support front” with Palestinians shortly after its ally Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, triggering Israel’s ensuing military offensive in Gaza.
Iran-aligned groups in the region, including Shi’ite armed factions in Syria and Iraq and Yemen’s Houthis, have also been firing on Israel since shortly after Oct. 7.
In Lebanon, the fighting has killed more than 100 civilians and more than 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to a Reuters tally, and led to levels of destruction in Lebanese border towns and villages not seen since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
Nasrallah promised that totally or partially destroyed homes would be rebuilt “more beautiful than they were before.”
(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Timour Azhari in Beirut and Clauda Tanios in Dubai; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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