Netanyahu warns of ‘crushing’ retaliation after Hezbollah chief´s remarks

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned the head of Lebanon´s Tehran-backed Hezbollah that “crushing” retaliation would follow any attack, after its leader said the group´s rockets could reach Tel Aviv.

“Over the weekend we heard (Hassan) Nasrallah´s boasting about his attack plans,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “Let me be clear — if Hezbollah dares to make the mistake of attacking Israel, we will lay upon it and on Lebanon a crushing military blow.”

In a Friday interview broadcast on Hezbollah´s Al-Manar television, Nasrallah warned that key Israeli sites along the Mediterranean coast, including Tel Aviv, were “within range of our rockets”. The head of the Lebanese Shiite movement also said that Israel´s arch-foe Iran was “able to bombard Israel with ferocity and force,” but “will not start a war”.

Last week, Netanyahu said that “Iran has been threatening the destruction of Israel” and warned that Israel´s fighter jets “can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran.” Hezbollah is considered to be a terrorist organisation by the United States, and is the only faction not to have disarmed after Lebanon´s 1975-1990 civil war.

But it is also a major political player in the small Mediterranean country, taking 13 seats in parliament last year and securing three posts in the current cabinet. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighbouring Syria against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah military targets. It has vowed to keep Iran from entrenching itself militarily there.