The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned a European country could become the target of its forces should a “broader war” with Israel erupt.
Hours after Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said a decision on an open conflict with Hezbollah would come soon, Nasrallah said there would be “no place safe” in Israel from Hezbollah’s missiles and drones.
Lashing out at Jerusalem in a televised speech, the leader of the Iran-backed group added Israel “knows that what also awaits it in the Mediterranean is very big…In the face of a battle of this magnitude, it knows that it must now wait for us on land, in the air, and at sea”.
The Hezbollah head went on to issue for the first time an extraordinary warning to Cyprus, accused of allowing Israel to use its airports and bases for military exercises.
He said: “The Cypriot government must be warned that opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means that the Cypriot government has become part of the war and the resistance (Hezbollah) will deal with it as part of the war.”
Cyprus is not known to have offered any military facilities to Israel. It has allowed the country at times in the past to use its flight information region to conduct air drills – but never during conflict.
RAF aircraft have departed from a military facility in Cyprus in recent months for operations against Houthi targets in Yemen, but they were operating from a sovereign British base on which the Cyprus government has no say.
The ever-present tensions between Israel and Hezbollah started to grow again following Hamas‘ unprecedented terror attack on October 7, with the Lebanese militants firing shells to support another Iranian proxy.
But in recent weeks, Hezbollah drone and rocket attacks have grown in number and intensity, leading Jerusalem to consider an “all-out” war, as revealed by Katz on Tuesday.
After Hezbollah published footage filmed with a drone and showing potentially sensitive targets in the northern city of Haifa, the Israeli official wrote on X: “We are very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit.
“The State of Israel will pay a price on the front and home fronts, but with a strong and united nation, and the full power of the IDF, we will restore security to the residents of the north.”
Geopolitical analyst Avi Melamed, who used to work for Israeli intelligence, claimed the growing exchange of fire between the Israeli military and the Lebanese militants is “bringing the conflict to the brink of crossing over to a full-scale war”.
He told the MailOnline: “Since October 8, Hezbollah has harassed Israel‘s northern communities, turning them into ghost towns through its aerial strikes both of missiles and attack drones.
“It has also managed to ignite forest fires in northern Israel, all in service of its partners in Gaza, part of Iran’s network of ‘resistance’. But, its success has also left it with very few viable targets left that won’t result in a significant Israeli strike.”