The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, today accused Israel of coordinated deadly attacks on the Lebanese organization's communication devices on Tuesday and Wednesday, saying that "all red lines have been crossed."
In his first public statement about the attacks, Nasrallah called them an "unprecedented massacre."
"On Tuesday, Israel intended to kill 4.000 people in one minute by detonating pagers. Many of them were civilians," the Hezbollah leader claimed, Israeli media reported, noting that these devices were distributed only to operatives of the extremist organization.
"The next day, 1.000 more in one minute. In two minutes, Israel intended to kill 5.000 people," Nasrallah said, assessing that he had suffered a heavy blow.
"It is a war. We know that the enemy, Israel as well as the USA and NATO, is technologically superior," he added.
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Nasrallah also said that the organization is investigating how the attacks took place that killed more than 30 and wounded thousands of people.
The explosions rang out in hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, homes, cars and streets where there are many civilians, the Hezbollah leader said.
The result of "that aggression is dozens killed, including women and children, and thousands wounded".
"Yes, we have suffered a huge and serious blow," said Nasrallah, but he assessed that Israel's efforts have been greatly hampered and that Hezbollah will not fall, but rather strengthen, and that it is ready to face "even worse attacks", and that his organization's attacks will not stop until the enemy ends the war in Gaza.
He spoke via video link from an unknown location. Hezbollah has previously organized gatherings of supporters to watch his speeches on a big screen, but this was not done this time.
Nasrallah vowed today that his organization will prevent Israel from returning Israeli citizens displaced from the border area in the north.
"The goal of the resistance is to prevent the enemy from achieving his goals. His latest goal is the return of settlers to their homes in the north of occupied Palestine," Nasrallah said in the first televised address since explosions of communications devices across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, Israeli media reported.
"The enemy will face a fair punishment, from where he expects and does not expect," Nasrallah said, the Associated Press reported. As he spoke, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire along the border.
Shortly thereafter, the Israeli military announced that two soldiers had been killed and several wounded in rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah in northern Israel today.
"Let me tell the Israeli government, the Israeli army and the Israeli people, you will not succeed. I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, you can do whatever you want, you will not succeed. The only solution is to stop the aggression against the people of Gaza. Not military escalation, not killings not total war, it will not bring the settlers back to the border area, you know that," Nasrallah said.
He also rejected the idea of one of the commanders of the Israeli army to create a buffer zone in the south of Lebanon, where the stronghold of Hezbollah is, calling him an imbecile.
Nasrallah expressed hope that Israeli forces would enter southern Lebanon because it would create what he said would be a historic opportunity for Hezbollah.
Announcing retaliation for the attacks on the communications devices of Hezbollah members, he announced that he would not say when or how it would happen, but that Israel would know when it arrived.
As Nasrallah spoke, Hezbollah confirmed four attacks on Israel.
Israeli media reported that Israeli fighter jets then breached the air barrier while flying low over Beirut.
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