Hezbollah leader Nasrallah warns killing of Hamas official in Lebanon ‘will not go unanswered or unpunished’
Mike Brest
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that the killing of senior Hamas leader Saleh al Arouri in Beirut, Lebanon, “will not go unanswered or unpunished.”
Nasrallah, who rarely speaks publicly, gave an address on Wednesday to honor the fourth anniversary of the assassination of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020. During his speech, he spoke about the killing of Arouri, a top Hamas leader who was reportedly responsible for a closer relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah, a day earlier.
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Israel and Hezbollah have continued to engage in limited combat near their shared border since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has prompted concerns that it could become a wider regional conflict.
“Until now, we have been acting on the front with calibrated moves, and that’s why we’re losing so many people. … But if Israel wages a war on Lebanon, then our response will be limitless … we are not scared of war,” Nasrallah said, according to CNN. “Yesterday’s crime was large and dangerous … This crime will not be left without a response and punishment. Between us and our enemies there is time and the battlefield.”
“We do not need to say much, and just like we said in our official statement yesterday, this serious crime will not go unanswered or unpunished,” he added.
U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said shortly after Nasrallah’s address, “I think we’re going to judge actions and not words. We haven’t seen Hezbollah jump in with both feet to come to Hamas’s aid and assistance.”
The killing of Arouri, which Israel has not explicitly claimed credit for, represents what could be the first time it has made good on its threat to target Hamas leaders who do not reside in the Gaza Strip. It could take months or years for Israel to track all senior Hamas leaders.
“I think this is the first manifestation of what Israeli leaders have said would be their pursuit of Hamas leadership, wherever they are given what happened on Oct. 7,” former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the Washington Examiner. “As we’ve seen [in] the past, though, the Israelis can be very patient. So, I think this is something that happens over a long period of time, months, years. Who knows? I think Hamas leaders are going to be very careful, but I think the Israelis will be very patient and very determined to hold Hamas leadership accountable for those brutal attacks on Oct. 7.”
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Esper also noted that there “will be some type of response” after the Arouri strike, “but not a response sufficient to open up a northern front” because “I don’t think Israel wants that, and I don’t think Hezbollah wants that either.”
Hezbollah is one of a multitude of terrorist groups in the Middle East that has Iran’s backing.