Hezbollah leader warns Israel against extending war to Lebanon: “We will fight without limits”

The death of Hamas number two, Saleh al Aruri, in an attack this Tuesday in the capital of Lebanon has increased tension in the region and increased fear that the war between Israel and Gaza will spread beyond the Strip. Israel has neither confirmed that it was behind this attack nor denied it. Hamas has warned that the bombing in Beirut will have consequences, and Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari has assured that the forces are prepared for any scenario. The leader of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, issued a warning this Wednesday: “If the enemy plans to launch a war against Lebanon, we will fight without limits, without restrictions, without borders (…)”. A day after what is the biggest blow to Hamas since the start of the war in the Palestinian enclave, clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on the border continue, while messages continue to avoid an escalation of the conflict in the region.

This Wednesday, the West Bank woke up with shops, institutions and companies closed and there have been mobilizations in cities such as Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority. Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the ruling Fatah party, had called for a general strike to protest Al Aruri's death. Hundreds of people have demonstrated in Ramallah shouting “revenge.” The attack in which Al Aruri and five other people, including two other Hamas military leaders, were killed, targeted the Palestinian group's offices in Dahiye, a suburb of Beirut controlled by Hezbollah, the militia that exchanges almost daily from the start of the rocket, aerial fire and artillery war with Israel in the north of the country. If Israeli responsibility for the attack on Al Aruri is confirmed, it would be the first in Beirut since 2006.

This Wednesday, the leader of Hezbollah expressed his condolences for the death of Al Aruri and described the bombing as “a blatant Israeli aggression.” In a speech he planned to deliver before news of Tuesday's attack, he said that Hezbollah's “quick” action on October 8, after the start of the war between Israel and Gaza, and the exchange of artillery fire in the border have since prevented a broader bombing campaign by Israel in Lebanon. He has also promised that there would be “no limits” or “rules” for the Iranian-backed Shiite militia if Israel decided to launch a war against the country. “Whoever thinks of a war against us, in a word, will regret it,” he stated.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib had explained hours earlier that his government was speaking with Hezbollah to convince the militia “that it should not respond” to the Beirut attack on Tuesday afternoon. “We do not demand them, we dialogue with them,” Bou Habib said in an interview on the BBC. In the next 24 hours it will be seen “whether they respond or not,” added the minister. “We are very worried, the Lebanese do not want to be dragged, not even Hezbollah wants to be dragged into a regional war,” he added. Bou Habib has called on the West to pressure Israel “to stop all its violence” in Lebanon and Gaza.

The United States has acknowledged being very concerned about a possible escalation. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said he cannot offer an assessment of who is responsible for the attack, although he has emphasized that Al Aruri was “a brutal terrorist with civilian blood on his hands.” According to him, Washington was not notified of the attack in advance.

Various voices have called to reduce tension. The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has warned that any escalation “could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the border”. “We continue to implore all parties to cease fire and all influential interlocutors to urge this restraint,” said spokesperson Kandice Ardiel. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a delegation of US senators that the priority is to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and has emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from expanding in the region, according to a statement. . “Al Sisi highlighted the importance of intensive and responsible work to avoid factors that expand the scope of the conflict in the region, due to its dangerous repercussions on regional and international peace and security,” the Egyptian presidency detailed in a statement. at the end of the meeting.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke this Tuesday with Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's emergency government, along these same lines. “The president has stressed that it is essential to avoid any attitude of escalation, especially in Lebanon, and that France will continue to transmit these messages to all actors directly or indirectly involved in the area,” the Elysée noted, according to BFM TV. Macron also expressed his “deep concern at the very high number of civilian deaths and the situation of absolute humanitarian emergency in Gaza.”

Meanwhile, the extent of a change in Hamas's stance remains unclear. Husam Badran, a member of the militia's political bureau in exile, reacted to Al Aruri's death by warning the “criminal occupation,” in reference to Israel, that “the battle” between them and Hamas “is open.” But Sami Abu Zuhri, another senior official of the Palestinian Islamist group, said that while this death “will have its consequences,” the group's position remains that, as long as Israel completely stops its attacks, it is open to talks “about all the others.” topics”. Hamas and other Islamist factions still hold 129 hostages in Gaza since October 7 and there have been talks between both sides for a possible ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Iran, which this Tuesday had already warned that the death of Al Aruri “will ignite another wave in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers”, in the words of the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, has launched this Wednesday a warning to the United States. The Minister of Defense, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, has warned Washington to “prepare” for the consequences of the assassination of Hamas' number two, according to Iranian media. Joe Biden's Administration, in his words, has “ventured” into the region and has “altered its balance,” so the “repercussions [de la muerte de Aruri] “They will have an adverse effect and harm the Americans themselves.”

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