The leader of the Lebanese pro-Iranian group " ;Hezbollah" announced on Wednesday that nowhere in Israel would be safe if a full-scale war broke out between it and Israel, also threatening Cyprus and other parts of the Mediterranean, reports Reuters, quoted by News.bg.
For more than eight months, Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israel in parallel with the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, the Iran-backed group released what it said wasdrone footage showing sensitive military sites deep inside Israeli territory.
In a televised address on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that "there will be no place safe from our missiles and drones" in Israel in the event of a wider war. The group has a "bank of targets" it can hit with precision strikes, he added.
Israel "knows that what awaits it in the Mediterranean too is very big... In the face of such a battle, Israel knows it must wait for us on the ground, in the air and at sea ," Nasrallah added.
In 2006, Hezbollah demonstrated that it could strike a vessel at sea by striking an Israeli warship in the Mediterranean. According to media and analyst reports for years, Hezbollah has acquired Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles. from Syria after its forces were deployed there more than a decade ago to help President Bashar al-Assad fight the civil war.
Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus for the first time, accusing it of allowing Israel to use its airports and bases for military exercises. "The Cypriot government must be warned that opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to attack Lebanon means that theCyprus government has become part of the war and the resistance (Hezbollah) will treat it as part of the war ," Nasrallah stated.
There was no immediate comment from Cypriot authorities. Cyprus is not known to have provided land or bases to the Israeli military, but in the past has allowed Israel to use its vast airspace to conduct aerial exercises.
Nasrallah said his group would fight "without rules" and "no ceiling" in the event of a wider war. He was speaking at a memorial event for a commander killed in an Israeli strike last week - the most senior Hezbollah figure killed so far in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Hezbollah responded with its largest ever drone and missile attack against Israel. UN officials expressed concern about the escalation, and US envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to Israel and Lebanon to urge the two countries not to escalate into full-scale conflict.