LARA VILLALÓN Istanbul

Istanbul

Updated Friday, February 16, 2024-17:45

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The leader of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah party, Hasan Nasrallah, warned in a new speech that Israel will pay "in blood" for the attacks it carried out on Wednesday in southern Lebanon, which caused the death of eleven civilians.

"Israel will pay the price for the shedding of its blood, it will pay the price in blood,"

he assured. It is the first public appearance of the Lebanese leader since the largest escalation of war between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in the last four months.

The escalation of hostilities began when Hezbollah hit an Israeli military base with a missile, killing one soldier and wounding five others. Israel responded with several airstrikes, hitting a residential building in Nabatieh, fifty kilometers south of Beirut, and a residence in a border town. "What happened was deliberate.

Israel tries to say it was a mistake, that they didn't want to hit civilians

, but we believe it was deliberate," he said. After lamenting the death of five Hezbollah fighters on Thursday night in new attacks by the Israeli army, Nasrallah pointed out that it is "normal" for his soldiers to die in a war situation, but warned that attacking civilians is a red line for his organization. . "Its existence (of the Israeli state) is in itself an act of aggression," he said, after warning that the airstrikes that Hezbollah has carried out in recent hours are only "a preliminary response."

The Lebanese government presented a complaint this Friday to the UN Security Council for civilians killed in Israeli attacks. "Israel's deliberate and direct bombing of civilians who were safe in their homes is a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime," the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The crossfire that began last October has displaced thousands of people on both sides of the border.

More than 250 people have died

in cross-border violence in Lebanon, including 37 civilians. On the Israeli side, a dozen soldiers and five civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.

In the same vein as his previous speeches, Nasrallah assured that his organization's intention is to maintain a focus of tension on the border with Israel in protest of its offensive in Gaza, although they have no intention of an open war with the neighboring country. "The main battle is to apply pressure to deter the battle in Gaza," he declared. "Americans and Israelis must know that the Palestinians will not back down, no matter the sacrifices. The front in southern Lebanon will not stop. Israeli (Defense Minister)

Yoav Gallant

forgets that the resistance in Lebanon has missiles capable of reaching the entire Israeli territory," he warned.

On the other hand, the leader of the Lebanese militant group condemned the US bombings in Yemen, which Washington began in an attempt to deter the HTI militia that has put commerce in the Red Sea in check with its attacks on commercial ships. Nasrallah assured that the United States looked for an excuse to "help Israel in the region," since its army was "very busy in Gaza, the West Bank and on the border with Lebanon." The Hezbollah leader

also expressed his opposition to the idea of ​​the Israeli authorities

that another country would host part of the Gazans displaced by the war. "We have to be alert. When we talk about a Palestinian state, we must define its borders," he said. "The most dangerous thing at the moment is the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

We must not forget our objective. That (Israel) cannot achieve it," he added. "They want to send those from the West Bank to Jordan and those from Gaza to Egypt," he warned. Nasrallah did not want to comment on the talks of a possible ceasefire in Gaza and noted that they leave the decision in the hands of Hamas. "We do not interfere in Hamas's negotiations with Israel. It is up to them to make the necessary decisions because they are the ones who pay the highest price," he stated.