Lebanon pager explosion: Hezbollah leader vows 'terrible punishment' for Israel

New strikes

The Israeli military said Thursday it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in an effort to restore security in northern Israel, as part of new plans approved by the general staff. The IDF later announced the deaths of two soldiers in northern Israel. According to Israeli news channel Channel 12, one of them was killed by a drone and the other by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.

In a statement released shortly before a speech by the leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hassan Nasrallah, the Israeli army said it was conducting operations “to restore security in northern Israel in order to allow residents to return to their homes”, one of the new goals that Benjamin Netanyahu's government set for itself on Tuesday in its war against the Palestinian Hamas and its regional allies.

“All red lines” crossed

Two waves of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used in Lebanon by Hezbollah members followed, killing 37 and injuring some 3,000. In his televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of crossing “all red lines” with these attacks, which were not claimed by the Hebrew state.

The head of the Shiite organization assured that Israel would not succeed, whatever the means, in achieving its objective of allowing the inhabitants of the north of the country, driven out in recent months by Hezbollah bombings, to return to their homes. Only an end to the war in the Gaza Strip will allow calm to return, he said.

Lebanon as a “combat zone”

According to Tehran media, Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami promised Hassan Nasrallah that Israel would face a “crushing response from the “axis of resistance”, which refers to the armed groups backed by Iran, including Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

In its statement, the Israeli army said Hezbollah had turned southern Lebanon into a “combat zone”. “For decades, Hezbollah has armed civilian homes, dug tunnels under them and used civilians as human shields,” it said.

A new phase of the war

In another statement, it said that the head Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the war was entering a new phase and that the center of gravity was shifting to the northern border with Lebanon, where troops and resources would be transferred.