Nasrallah: Israel will ‘weep’ for killing top commander; PM: We’re ready for any scenario
As Israel braces for retaliation from Hezbollah and Iran for deaths of terror chiefs, Nasrallah says it should expect ‘rage and revenge’ as fighting has entered ‘new phase’
By Gianluca Pacchiani, Sam Sokol and Emanuel Dabian
The Times of Israel
Aug 1, 2024
An image grab taken from Hezbollah's al-Manar TV on August 1, 2024, shows Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah giving a televised address from an undisclosed location in Lebanon, broadcast at top commander Fuad Shukr's funeral ceremony. Shukr's picture is on the screen behind him.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that Israel had “crossed red lines” in the killing of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, and must expect “rage and revenge on all the fronts supporting Gaza.”
Claiming the fighting had entered “a new phase,” he said Israelis “will weep terribly” in the days ahead.
Nasrallah spoke as Israel braced for Hezbollah’s response as well as for Iranian retaliation in the wake of Hamas political chief Haniyeh’s death in Tehran early Wednesday. Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for the latter, but has been blamed by Tehran and Hamas.
Shukr’s killing on Tuesday evening was the most serious blow to the Iran-backed terror group in nearly two decades and threatened to push the tit-for-tat exchanges across the Israel-Lebanon border in parallel with the Gaza war into a full-blown regional conflict.
Fuad Shakar, Hezbollah's chief of staff
In a televised address at Shukr’s funeral, Nasrallah said Hezbollah was “paying the price for its support for Gaza and the Palestinian people” but said that the group was now beyond the support phase, declaring an “open battle on all fronts.”
Speaking at the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for any “aggression” against it.
“Israel is very prepared for any scenario — both defensively and offensively,” he said. “We will exact a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any arena.”
Nasrallah said he had ordered Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon to curb the fighting on Wednesday and Thursday but that they would resume with higher intensity on Friday, reiterating that the only way to end the war on the Lebanese front was for Israel to stop its “aggression” in Gaza.
Nasrallah repeated Hezbollah’s claim — rejected by Israel and the US — that the terror group was not behind the Saturday rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights in which 12 children were killed.
He claimed Hezbollah would have admitted if it had made a mistake and killed civilians, and suggested it could have been an Israeli interceptor that hit Majdal Shams. Weapons experts have said all evidence points to a rocket from Lebanon hitting the soccer field and killing the children.
The Hezbollah leader argued Shukr’s assassination was not actually a response to the Majdal Shams incident but rather an act of war.
Nasrallah said unnamed countries had asked his group to retaliate in an “acceptable” way — or not at all. But he said it would be “impossible” for the group not to respond. “There is no discussion on this point. The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights and the battlefield,” Nasrallah added in a threat to Israel.
“I’m not saying we reserve the right to respond at the appropriate time and place,” said Nasrallah. “Absolutely not. We will respond. That’s final.”
Shukr was considered second only to Nasrallah in importance in Hezbollah, but the terror chief minimized the impact his assassination would have on the functioning of the organization.
“When one of our commanders becomes a martyr, he is swiftly replaced. We have an excellent new generation of commanders,” he said.
He further denied that military pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah or other Iran-backed groups would cause them to surrender.
“The aspiration of Benjamin Netanyahu is that Hamas will tell him: ‘Come, here are the hostages and the weapons.’ This will not happen. We will not surrender, neither in Gaza, nor in Lebanon, nor in Yemen.”
Nasrallah predicted that Israelis “will weep terribly, because you do not know which red lines you have crossed.”
He also said that Iran considers Haniyeh’s assassination, while he was being hosted in Tehran during the regime’s presidential inauguration events, to constitute “an attack on its national security and sovereignty.”
In his comments, meanwhile, Netanyahu highlighted Israel’s confirmation that it had killed Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif.
“Deif was responsible for the terrible massacre of October 7 and also for many murderous attacks against the citizens of Israel. He was Israel’s number one wanted man for years,” Netanyahu said at the end of a briefing by IDF Homefront Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo and Yoram Laredo, director of the National Emergency Management Authority.
Netanyahu declared that Deif’s elimination “reinforces a simple principle that we have established: Whoever hurts us, we hurt them.”
Israel has not taken credit for or officially commented on Haniyeh’s death. Iranian leaders have regardless vowed revenge against Israel and Netanyahu said on Wednesday night that there would be “challenging days ahead.”
At a press conference on Thursday night, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military would know how to handle any threat.
“Since the beginning of the war. we have faced various threats that have come from far and near,” he said. “We have proven recently that the State of Israel knows how to deal with threats in defense, and to respond with a mighty attack.”
He said the IDF was holding continuous assessments on the situation, but as of Thursday night, there was no change to Home Front Command guidelines for civilians. “We have our finger on the pulse all the time.”
“We have very good defense systems, and we have international allies that bolstered their forces in the area to aid us against these threats,” Hagari said.
At the same time, Hagari said Israel’s defenses were “not hermetic” and urged the public to “be vigilant and continue to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command.”
Asked about the assassination of Haniyeh, Hagari said: “We struck on Tuesday night in Lebanon and killed Fuad Shukr in an accurate aerial strike. I want to emphasize, there was no other aerial strike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night, and I won’t comment further.”
The New York Times reported Thursday that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in his room, citing American and Middle Eastern officials.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 25 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists.
Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Yemen, and Syria have also launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel during the ongoing war sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror onslaught. Last month, a man was killed in a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Yemen’s Houthis.
Hezbollah has named 385 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
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