Lebanon’s Hezbollah says ready for ‘unrestricted warfare’ with Israel amid border tension

By Stephanie Radi

BEIRUT (AA) – Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that his group is ready for “unrestricted warfare” with Israel amid an exchange of cross-border fire between the two sides.

“Israel and its army and settlers are the ones who fear war, not Lebanon,” Nasrallah said in a speech, one week after senior Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

“We have been ready for war in the last 99 days,” Nasrallah said. “We will accept the war and will fight without a ceiling or controls if the war is imposed on us,” he added.

The Hezbollah chief said the Israeli army hides its casualties.

“When the war stops, the enemy will face a catastrophe as a result of the resistance in Gaza and other resistance fronts,” he added.

Tensions have escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel since the Israeli army launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, amid an exchange of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides had fought a full-scale war in 2006.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio