“If Israeli tanks come to Lebanon, not only will there not be a shortage of tanks, there will be no lack of tanks,” Nasrallah said. Nasrallah listed towns and villages in southern Lebanon where civilians have been killed in Israeli attacks in recent days, and vowed a stronger response if the attacks continue. “Resistance missiles will target new Israeli settlements that have not been targeted so far.”
Fighting on Israel’s northern border began just hours after Hamas attacked Israeli communities outside the Gaza Strip on October 7. Hezbollah fired rockets in support of Hamas. The violence left dead on both sides, damaged farms and dairy farms and forced tens of thousands to flee border towns. Tensions escalated last month after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander, prompting the Lebanese militant group to respond with fierce rocket attacks.
Israeli military leaders have been planning to attack Lebanon for months but both sides say they prefer a diplomatic solution as the United States and other countries try to broker a ceasefire. Hezbollah has long maintained it will not stop attacks until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Our frontline will not end as long as aggression against the Gaza Strip, its people and its various forms of resistance continues,” Nasrallah said Wednesday. “Israel maintains that during the 10 months that Israel was at its height, the threat of war did not frighten us.”
Nasrallah struck a triumphant tone in his speech, claiming that attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had damaged the Israeli economy and left thousands of Israeli soldiers seriously injured.
According to Israeli casualty figures, more than 4,000 soldiers were wounded, over 600 of them seriously.
Gunfire continued on the border overnight, with Israel reporting that Hezbollah fired about 65 rounds into Israeli territory, most of which were neutralised by air defence forces and no injuries were reported. The Israeli military said the IDF then struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The firefights on the Israeli-Lebanese border and Hezbollah threats come at a time when Israeli forces are stretched thin on multiple fronts.
A ground invasion of Lebanon would pit the IDF against a larger and better-equipped Hezbollah army than it currently faces in Gaza.
What you need to know
Israeli hostage families groups are calling on the prime minister to explain his reported comments in the Knesset that there was no need to rush into an agreement because “hostages are suffering but not dying.” A statement from the forum said the comments were “deeply hurtful to hostage families, factually incorrect and dangerously irresponsible.” They say the hostages’ lives are at risk and an agreement must be concluded immediately.
Ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks, the parents of the hostages said Wednesday they were optimistic about the return of their daughter, Lili Elbag, following talks with the Israeli government. “We spoke with Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer last week, and he told us that the conditions are in place for an agreement to be made,” Lili’s father, Eli Elbag, said. “Dermer has sent us off with optimism.”
Noah Al-Ghamani, a hostage who was rescued in June, will accompany Netanyahu when he addresses the US Congress next week, according to Israeli media, and will be accompanied by his father, as well as other hostages and families of those killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Human Rights Watch, in a report released Wednesday after months of interviews with survivors, hostages, emergency workers and other witnesses, said Hamas and other militant groups planned and carried out a “coordinated” attack on Israeli civilians on October 7. The rights group said the attack involved a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” the use of civilians as human shields, and cruel and inhuman treatment.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 38,794 people have been killed and 89,364 wounded in Gaza since the war began. The ministry did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said the majority of the dead were women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people, including more than 300 soldiers, were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack, and says 326 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.
Lior Soroka and Shira Rubin in Tel Aviv, Kareem Fahim, Mohammad El Shamaa and Brian Pietsch in Beirut contributed to this report.
