Hezbollah Leader Threatens Retaliation Against Israel After Airstrike Near Beirut

[Pelican Press 0]

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Hezbollah Leader Threatens Retaliation Against ******* After Airstrike Near Beirut

The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Thursday that its conflict with ******* had entered a new phase after an ******** strike in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, this week. But his vow to respond fell far short of the fiery pledge to escalate that some residents and officials had feared.

Mr. Nasrallah’s speech had been nervously awaited since the ******** strike on Tuesday, which ******* Fuad Shukr, one of his close confidantes and a top-ranking Hezbollah commander. A top ****** leader was ******* in Iran hours later, fueling worries around the Middle East that *******’s hostilities with Iran and its allies could erupt into all-out regional war.

But although Mr. Nasrallah promised that Hezbollah would respond, he equivocated on the scope and nature of that retaliation.

“We have entered a new phase,” he said, speaking in a televised address during the ******** for Mr. Shukr. “You do not realize the red lines you have crossed,” warned Mr. Nasrallah, addressing ******* directly.

“The response will come, whether spread out or simultaneously,” he added.

Officials and diplomats across the Middle East had been looking to the speech for any indication of whether Hezbollah would alter course in its long-running conflict with *******, either by escalating its military response or seeking to lower the pressure and avoid all-out war. The speech by Mr. Nasrallah on Thursday appeared to straddle that line.

Although he said the group and its allies were working on “a true response, not a show response as some are trying to suggest,” he added that *******’s reaction would determine whether the war escalates.

The targeted ******** strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday that ******* Mr. Shukr also ******* five civilians and wounded scores more, according to the Lebanese authorities.

The strike on Tuesday, which ******* quickly announced, was notable for several reasons, analysts said: It ******* a high-ranking figure at the core of Hezbollah’s inner sanctum; it caused civilian casualties; and it hit less than three miles from downtown Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city, which had largely been spared direct *********. Some analysts said that Hezbollah could feel compelled to respond strongly because of those facts.

But Hezbollah has lowered the intensity of its attacks along *******’s northern border since the strike on Tuesday, an indication that the group recognizes the stakes. Mr. Nasrallah said during his speech that he had ordered his fighters to remain calm, and that the group would resume operations on Friday. The retaliation for the ******** of Mr. Shukr would come later, he added.

“The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights and the battlefield,” said Mr. Nasrallah, again addressing *******.

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