Lebanese-Israeli front heats up as Hezbollah vows retaliation
Hezbollah's leader has promised to retaliate for Israel killing two of its operatives in Syria and bombing the movement's office Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes killed two Hezbollah operatives in Syria Aug. 24. Hours later, two drones crashed in the vicinity of Hezbollah’s media relations office in a southern suburb of Beirut. One of the drones crashed without causing any damage, while the second exploded and damaged Hezbollah’s office. Hezbollah maintains that the two drones were Israeli, and that both had been armed with explosives.
These latest developments have brought the situation to a boiling point on the Lebanese-Israeli front, where a relative calm had prevailed since the end of the 2006 war.
Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed retaliation. In an Aug. 25 speech, Nasrallah said that a response to the killing of its operatives in Syria would come from Lebanon. But he left it anyone’s guess as to how the group would retaliate, making reference to both military and civilian Israeli targets.
“I tell the Israeli army on the border: Be prepared and wait for us,” Nasrallah stated. Addressing Israeli residents on the border area with Lebanon, he warned, “Do not live, do not rest, do not be reassured.”
