Hezbollah chief warns Israel of 'just punishment' for device blasts
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00:00This afternoon, Hassan Nasrallah has been speaking in Lebanon.
00:03The Hezbollah leader described the attacks that killed 37 people and left over 3,000 injured
00:09as Israel having crossed all red lines.
00:13He went on to say Israel would face tough retribution.
00:20The enemy has transgressed all laws and red lines.
00:23We are going to call this the Tuesday and Wednesday massacres.
00:27It's a war crime, a declaration of war.
00:30You can call it what you like.
00:33Let's go straight to Beirut now.
00:34Rawad Taha is our correspondent.
00:36He's standing by.
00:37Rawad, we will come to Nasrallah and what he had to say in just a moment,
00:42but first I want to ask you about what's been happening
00:44where you are in Beirut in the Lebanese capital.
00:47I understand jets flying very low this afternoon.
00:51Indeed, shortly after Nasrallah started his speech,
00:56Israeli warplanes were flying at an extremely low altitude,
01:00unprecedented when it comes to the case of the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, since the past year.
01:06This is probably the lowest altitude that these Israeli jets ever flew at
01:11since the war of attrition started.
01:15Also, sonic booms, loud sonic booms shook the entire city and rattled the entire city,
01:21even this office where I'm speaking from.
01:23As we were hearing Nasrallah speaking,
01:25the windows all around us were shaking for a couple of seconds.
01:30It was just psychological warfare, perhaps.
01:35Let's talk then about Nasrallah.
01:37You say this is potentially psychological warfare by Israel.
01:43What was Nasrallah saying?
01:45What was his tone?
01:47Give us a sense of his reaction to what has been
01:49really an unprecedented attack this week on his organisation.
01:54So, indeed, this is one of Nasrallah's most honest speeches.
01:59We have reached a...
02:01First, he mentioned that Hezbollah started its own internal investigation
02:05and that they have some sort of a clearer image of what went wrong
02:10and how this attack happened.
02:12He used the word near certain conclusions,
02:15but they need further more time for a verification.
02:18However, he was very honest when he told his people that there is no doubt
02:22that the organisation suffered a major and severe blow,
02:26both humanely and security wise.
02:29He called it an unprecedented event in Lebanon's history
02:33and in the history of the conflict with Israel.
02:36However, then he moved on to say that this blow did not
02:40and will not bring him or the organisation down.
02:44His own words, where we will become stronger,
02:47more resilient and more capable.
02:50One thing that is very important is that when he mentioned the retaliation
02:54for this wave of attacks, in particular,
02:58the walkie-talkie attacks and the pagers attacks,
03:02he mentioned and he used the words,
03:04don't wait for any attack, don't wait for any time.
03:07It could possibly take years to retaliate for this attack.
03:13Signalling that the retaliation is not going to happen anytime soon,
03:18rather than that Hezbollah would be planning some sort of
03:21and also a security breach attack on the long run on the Israeli side,
03:27rather than expecting any sort of retaliation to this attack
03:31during the next few days or weeks,
03:34unlike what we saw with the assassination of assassinations of commanders recently.
03:40However, the most important element of his speech today
03:46was not just this phrase and was not just accepting this strong blow.
03:56He mentioned that the main reason Israel conducted the wave of the two attacks,
04:02be it the pagers attack or the walkie-talkie attacks,
04:07is to separate the two fronts.
04:09What he meant by the two fronts is that the Lebanese front from the Gaza front.
04:15Now, of course, to remind our viewers,
04:17this war of attrition started here in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel
04:22in support of Hamas in Gaza, according to Hezbollah.
04:26What Israel has been trying to do,
04:28has been trying to split those two arenas into two separate conflicts,
04:33trying to reach a conclusion in the northern part of Israel
04:38that aims to return the residents of northern Israel back to their towns,
04:42even before any ceasefire in Gaza is achieved.
04:46That was a very, there was a very significant and clear answer
04:50from Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah on that part.
04:54Allow me to read exactly the statement he used.
04:57We tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
05:00and Defense Minister Yoav Galant that the Lebanese front
05:03will not cease its fight until the aggression on Gaza stops,
05:07regardless of the sacrifices and the consequences.
05:11He also added that a lot of the thematic channels and unofficial channels
05:15suggested that the goal of the attacks was to try to reach
05:19and conclude a deal or a ceasefire on the Lebanese front.
05:22But yet Hezbollah resists those pressures
05:25and will continue attacking northern Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is achieved.
05:31So perhaps given the fact that Hezbollah accepted the security breach law
05:38and accepted and admitted the fact that it was a great blow to the organization,
05:45but still insisted on maintaining the attrition war
05:49and keeping this attrition war active until the conflict in Gaza ends,
05:54it means we're back to square one, perhaps, or square zero.
06:00And now it's up to the Israeli side to decide
06:02whether they will be doing something about their northern arena
06:06or this limited war of attrition will continue.