The head of Hezbollah vowed vengeance Thursday for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, saying in a speech that Israel is unaware of the red lines it has crossed.
Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah described the assassination Wednesday in Tehran, Iran's capital, as an attack on Iran’s sovereignty as well as its honor.
“We have entered a new phase of the battle, and its escalation depends on the enemy’s reactions,” Nasrallah said, without specifying how the Iran-backed Lebanese militia and political group might respond.
Iranian officials and Hamas have blamed Israel for the attack on Haniyeh. Israel has not taken responsibility, although government officials have praised it.
Israel and Hezbollah, which has supported the Palestinian cause since its inception, have traded fire since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack in which 1,200 were killed and some 250 kidnapped.
The nearly 10-month war in Gaza, where some 40,000 people have died, according to the enclave's officials, has raised tensions in the region. Recent exchanges and threatening rhetoric have raised fears of potentially more serious response, with some Israeli officials raising the prospect of invading Lebanon
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said in a statement on X that Israel has "prepared a harsh punishment for itself." Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat, would "defend its territorial integrity and honor," according to the state news agency IRNA.
President Joe Biden is expected to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Thursday, according to a U.S. official.
While the United States is Israel's most important ally and supporter, and Biden a longtime supporter, there is rising frustration within the administration that Netanyahu is not doing more to limit civilian casualties in Gaza, achieve a cease-fire deal and attain the release of the 150 or so hostages believed to still be in Gaza.
The Biden-Netanyahu call comes as international leaders press a monthslong effort to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spilling out across the Middle East.
Nasrallah spoke at the funeral of Hezbollah’s own commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut on Tuesday, with Haniyeh’s death following just hours later.
Shukr was a senior Hezbollah commander whom Israel blamed for an attack that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Golan Heights on Saturday. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the rocket attack, which is rare for the Lebanese group.
Israel’s attack in Beirut also killed one woman and two children as well as injuring 74 others, according to Lebanese state media.
Nasrallah told his supporters that no amount of pressure would stop Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.
“If the world wants to avoid matters escalating further in our region, then they must pressure Israel to end its aggression on Gaza,” Nasrallah said.
Iran-linked groups and proxies across the Middle East have attacked Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
In April, Iran launched 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and drones at Israel after it killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two of Tehran's top commanders, in a strike on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital.
