Beirut: On Thursday (August 1, 2024), Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon, vowed a “definite” response to the Israeli killing of its top military commander. This announcement signals a new phase in the decades-old conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, with the group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, asserting that the strike had crossed critical red lines.
“The resistance cannot but respond. This is definite,” Nasrallah declared in a televised address during the funeral of the slain commander, attended by mourners in black waving the group’s yellow-and-green flag.
“We are looking for a real response, not a performative response, and for real opportunities. A studied response,” Nasrallah added.
The fatal strike on Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday resulted in the death of Fuad Shukr, the group’s military operations chief, an Iranian military adviser, and five civilians. This attack marks the most severe blow to Hezbollah in nearly two decades and risks escalating the ongoing tit-for-tat exchanges into a broader regional conflict.
The strike followed a failed diplomatic effort aimed at deterring Israel from hitting Beirut after a previous attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which killed 12 children. Israel attributed the Golan attack to Hezbollah, a claim the group denies.
In response to Shukr’s killing, Nasrallah noted that the group had conducted an investigation and found no involvement in the Golan strike. He criticized unnamed countries for urging Hezbollah to retaliate in an “acceptable” manner and outlined that the group’s response would be proportional to Israel’s aggression against civilian areas.
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“There is no discussion on this point. The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights, and the battlefield,” Nasrallah warned Israel.
Hezbollah’s routine operations, including drone and rocket strikes initiated after the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on October 7, 2024, are set to resume on Friday. However, Nasrallah emphasized that retaliation for Shukr’s death would occur at a later time.
He urged those seeking to prevent further conflict to focus on achieving a ceasefire in Gaza rather than pressuring Hezbollah. “There will be no solution except via stopping the aggression on Gaza,” Nasrallah concluded.
