Hezbollah raises the bar: response to Beirut attack will be “inevitable”

The Hezbollah leader threatened Israel, saying the response to the assassination of Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri will be “inevitable” on the “battlefield.” In his first speech given after al-Arouri’s death, which occurred last Tuesday in Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah had guaranteed that he “would not go unpunished”. Nasrallah said today that “we cannot remain silent about a breach of this magnitude, as it would mean that all of Lebanon would be exposed” in the future. “We, fighters from all border areas, will respond to this dangerous breach,” he added. Meanwhile, a crowd of thousands of people gathered yesterday in the Lebanese capital for the funeral of Hamas commander Saleh al Arouri, number two in the Palestinian terrorist organization, killed by a drone on January 2.

Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas accused Israel from the beginning, issuing threats of retaliation and revenge that raised fears that the ongoing conflict could spread to Lebanon. On the contrary, Hezbollah’s response at this point has not gone beyond verbal attacks and rocket launches that represent nothing new compared to the recent past. Any escalation is not in the hands of the fragile government in Beirut, but rather of Tehran’s Shiite allies. A threat that Israel does not underestimate: around 80,000 civilians evacuated from the border with Lebanon and 200,000 soldiers that the Jewish State deployed in an area where tension has not been so high since 2006.