The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah threatened Wednesday to target the European island of Cyprus if war breaks out between Israel and Lebanon.
“Cyprus will also be part of this war” if it opens its airports and bases to Israeli forces, Hasan Nasrullah he said in a televised address that came just a day after Israel warned powerful Iran-backed militant groups that the prospect of “all-out war” was “very close.”
The comments by Hezbollah’s leader are the first time he has threatened Cyprus, a member of the European Union that is located on the Mediterranean Sea, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Lebanon, and has been holding joint military exercises with Israel since 2014 and as recently as last year.
Nasrallah’s threat came as part of a fiery response to the Israeli threat that saw him boast of the group’s growing capabilities and threaten to “shake the pillars” of Israel if war “will be waged in Lebanon.”
Tensions between Hezbollah and Israel have risen since the October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent military campaign by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. In recent weeks, the intensity of cross-border attacks between the two has increased, raising concerns about the prospect of full-scale war.
The prospect took a turn for the worse on Tuesday, when Hezbollah released a 9-minute video shot by a drone showing civilian and military locations in and around one of Israel’s largest cities, Haifa. The video prompted Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to warn of an “all-out war” in which “Hezbollah will be destroyed, and Lebanon will be heavily defeated.”
On Wednesday, Nassrallah celebrated the video as proof of his ability to gather intelligence.
“The enemy knows that no place in the whole (country) is safe from our missiles, and it will not be arbitrary. Everything will be deliberate,” Nasrallah said in his speech.
“We have hours of footage of Haifa, on the outskirts of Haifa, and what happened after Haifa, and after Haifa,” Nasrallah said, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah’s slogan from the 2006 war with Israel, when the group’s rockets were fired. hit Haifa for the first time.
In response to the threat by Nasrallah, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said the island was “not involved in a war conflict.”
“The Republic of Cyprus is not part of the problem. The Republic of Cyprus is part of the solution,” said Christodoulides. “And our role in this, as shown, for example, through the humanitarian corridor, is recognized not only by the Arab world but by the international community as a whole.”
What the drone footage shows
Part of the Hezbollah footage, recorded during the day, claimed to show Krayot, a group of “same-populated” residential towns north of the Israeli city of Haifa and 28 km (17 miles) south of the Lebanese border, along with malls and high-rises. increase.
Another section claims to show a military complex near Haifa that is home to Israel’s Rafael weapons manufacturer – including the Iron Dome battery, a missile storage site and a radar site – and military vessels, ships and an oil storage depot in the port of Haifa.
CNN analysis has geolocated the video to several locations around Haifa. The location includes several sensitive areas, including at least two military installations: a base in northern Haifa and the port of Haifa. The drone also flew over oil tanks located north of Haifa, Haifa airport and some residential areas.
CNN also analyzed the shadows in the video, which showed drone missions in Haifa lasting several hours, or occurring over several days. The analysis shows that the video part has been accelerated.
Weapons expert Wim Zwijnenburg, project leader for humanitarian disarmament at the Dutch peace organization PAX, told CNN that the drone seen in the footage appears to be an “Iranian model of the Qasaf-2k, probably locally made.”
‘psychological terror’
The mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, described the video as “psychological terror” and demanded a protection plan for her city, criticizing the IDF commander for not visiting Haifa since the October 7 Hamas attack.
“I am asking the government to present a plan for a massive defense in Haifa and to find a military solution to eliminate the threat from the north,” Yahav told an Israeli radio station. Reshet Bet.
Hezbollah claimed the video was the “first episode,” suggesting more videos would emerge from inside Israeli territory.
A Hezbollah lawmaker in Lebanon’s parliament who referenced the video in a social media post also suggested more was to come.
“This is what the party (Hezbollah) announces and you see, but what it hides is bigger and bigger! Haifa and beyond, beyond, and beyond Haifa,” said Ibrahim Mousawi in the post.
The message appeared to be a reference to a phrase coined by Nasrallah during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, when he said the militant group would fire rockets at Haifa “and beyond Haifa”.
However, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer called the drone video “harmful propaganda” and said that “we know exactly how to deal with (Hezbollah) in one way – diplomatically or through military means.”
The Israeli military is increasing its readiness
Israel has prepared for the possibility that diplomatic efforts to ease hostilities with Hezbollah could fail. The release of the footage comes as the Israeli military says it has “approved and validated” its operational plan for an attack on Lebanon and made a decision on increasing the readiness of its forces in the field.
The plan was approved by the commander of the Northern Command and the head of the Operations Directorate during a joint situational assessment to prepare for the continuation of the fighting, the IDF said in a statement.
The agreement on the operational plan does not mean that war between Israel and Hezbollah is imminent – but it signals that Israel intends to be ready for such a scenario.
In response to the Hezbollah video, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Wednesday that the Israeli military is “preparing and creating solutions to deal with these and other capabilities.”
“We have many more troops in the IDF that are involved in the attack against Hezbollah,” Halevi said in a conversation with Israeli forces in an air defense battery along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
“I believe the enemy knows only a little about the capabilities we have and will confront them, if necessary, at the right time,” added Halevi.
Hezbollah has fired more than 5,000 rockets, missiles and drones at northern Israel since October 7, claiming the attacks were in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Hezbollah has said this month that it will only stop firing on Israel if Israel stops fighting in Gaza.
For its part, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks in Lebanon and evacuated approximately 60,000 citizens from the northern border. More than 90,000 Lebanese have also fled their homes in the region.
The US has called for a diplomatic off-ramp to avoid a wider war that could spread to the region, sending special envoy Amos Hochstein to Israel and Lebanon this week to try to ease tensions.
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged cross-border fire on Wednesday in the latest round of hostilities on the combative border, a day after a visit by Biden aides ended.
Hezbollah said four fighters from southern Lebanon were killed without specifying when or how they died. The Iranian-backed group also announced it had targeted Metula and Kryat Shmona in northern Israel with drones.
A video shared by Lebanese media close to Hezbollah shows a plume of smoke from the village of Burghalia in southern Lebanon after the Israeli attack, with other attacks in other Lebanese villages including Mais Al-Jabal, Talat Al-Awaida, Al-Khiyam and Hula, according to the office. NNA country news.
Additional reporting by Sharon Braithwaite.
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