WarSclerotic

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Monday that ‎any Israeli attack on Lebanese soil would meet ‎‎”inevitable retaliation” by the Shiite terrorist ‎group.‎

The statement was made prior to the IDF’s ‎announcement Tuesday that it has launched an ‎operation seeking to thwart Hezbollah tunnels ‎running under the Israel-Lebanon border.‎

On Monday, the Hezbollah-affiliated al-‎Akhbar newspaper published‏ ‏an editorial stating, ‎‎”Nasrallah has spoken. The only option against ‎Israeli aggression is inevitable retaliation‎.”‎

Last Thursday, Hezbollah released a video warning ‎Israel against striking Lebanon, featuring aerial ‎footage ‎of strategic targets in Israel, including ‎the IDF’s ‎headquarters in Tel Aviv. The footage was captioned “If ‎you strike, ‎you will regret it.” ‎

Hezbollah is believed to be in ‎possession of 150,000 ‎missiles, which ‎Nasrallah has repeatedly boasted can ‎hit ‎virtually anywhere in Israel. ‎

Recent days have seen Lebanese’s media speculate ‎that Israel was preparing to targets Hezbollah ‎infrastructure as well as Iranian assets in the ‎country, given intelligence indicating that Iran has ‎been delivering advanced weapons and equipment directly to ‎Hezbollah in Lebanon.

These speculations were further fueled by reports of ‎an urgent meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin ‎Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in ‎Brussels Monday, where the two discussed “regional ‎developments.”‎

Israel media reported that Netanyahu was poised to ‎‎ask Pompeo ‎for the United States’ support in the ‎event of an Israeli strike on Hezbollah ‎infrastructure in Lebanon.‎