Militant leader calls Israel ‘tumour, a terrorist state, a hostile entity, a bacteria of corruption’
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group issued a stern warning to Israel during a defiant address Friday that sought to reassure the group’s supporters days after intense clashes with the Israeli military raised fears of war.
Hasan Nasrallah told supporters that the Shia movement carefully planned the attack Wednesday that killed two Israeli soldiers in the border zone with Lebanon. He described the attack as retaliation for an alleged Israeli assault Jan. 18 in southern Syria that killed six Hezbollah militants and an Iranian general – an act that he called an “assassination”.
“We are not afraid of war. We will fight this war. We will achieve victory, God willing,” he said, appearing to goad Israel, which he labelled a “tumour, a terrorist state, a hostile entity, a bacteria of corruption”.
Nasrallah’s speech comes as tensions remain high over Wednesday’s attack, which also killed a Spanish UN peacekeeper. Both sides appear to have backed down from further escalation, but the Hezbollah leader was clearly seeking to issue a warning to Israel that his group’s fighters were prepared for renewed conflict.
“The Israelis must understand very well that this resistance is not deterred,” he said.
Nasrallah also accused Israel of aiding the al Qaeda wing in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is fighting in the Syrian Golan Heights area where the Jan. 18 attack took place.
That incident, which Nasrallah said was carried out by Israeli helicopters, targeted two vehicles, killing Jihad Mughniyah, 25, the son of Imad Mughniyah, a top Hezbollah militant commander who was assassinated in a 2008 car bombing in Syria’s capital, Damascus. Israel also is thought to have participated in that attack.
“They provide air cover” for al Qaeda, Nasrallah said of Israel, and “open the borders for them to let in the wounded” for medical treatment.
