Hezbollah leader Nasrallah responds to pager and walkie-talkie explosions: “This is a declaration of war”

At least 32 people have been killed in Lebanon this week in the coordinated explosion of technical equipment belonging to the Shiite organization. Twelve people were killed on Tuesday when pagers exploded. On Wednesday, the simultaneous explosion of thousands of walkie-talkies killed 20 people. More than 3,000 people are said to have been injured.

In a live-streamed address on Thursday, Nasrallah accused Israel of attempting “genocide” and a “massacre.” “In the space of two days and at one minute per day, Israel attempted to kill more than 5,000 people,” Nasrallah said in a televised address. “This criminal act amounts to a declaration of war,” he said, adding that Israel had crossed all red lines. This was “unprecedented in the history of our resistance and perhaps in the history of the conflict with the enemy,” Nasrallah added.

Not shaken

Nasrallah said the “Israeli enemy” planned the attacks to drive a wedge between the group and sow division. But, he said, Hezbollah’s top officials were not modeled after the beepers that exploded. “Our infrastructure has not been shaken,” he said, adding that instead it is “robust, powerful, cohesive and cannot be shaken by such an attack.”

“Let the enemy know that what happened did not shake our faith, our conviction, our resolve, our preparedness or our infrastructure. On the contrary, it made us more determined, more robust and more steadfast. If the Israelis’ goal was to separate us from what is happening in Gaza, they did not succeed.”

Nasrallah said Hezbollah will not stop until the war in Gaza is over. He said the group will not “abandon” its “fellow resistance fighters” in Gaza and the people in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I say it clearly: whatever the consequences, whatever the sacrifices, whatever the scenarios, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank and all the aggrieved in the occupied territories,” he said. “Our answer, in the name of the martyrs and the wounded, is that the front in Lebanon will not stop until the aggression against Gaza stops, regardless of the sacrifices,” the Hezbollah leader added.

He also warned on Thursday of a “terrible retaliation”. Israel will receive “terrible punishment and just retaliation. Where it expects it and where it does not expect it”.

During Nasrallah’s speech, Israeli fighter jets flew low over the capital Beirut, breaking the sound barrier. The noise, which sounded like an explosion, caused panic.