Tuesday, July 28, 2009
BEIRUT: Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack Tel Aviv if Israel were to bomb Beirut’s southern suburbs, a bastion of the powerful Shia military and political group.
Hizbullah fought against Israel three years ago in a 34-day war after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in across-border raid. Some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died.
Israel pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as mainly Shia southern Lebanon where Hizbullah maintains a stronghold and from which Israel withdrew in 2000. Israeli bombing also hit bridges, roads, airport runways, ports, factories, power and water networks, and military installations, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Hizbullah’s daily rocket barrages caused the destruction of some 2,000 homes and apartment buildings in Israeli cities. Tel Aviv was not hit by rocket attacks. “The equations that used to apply have now changed. Now it is the southern suburbs for Tel Aviv’ and not ‘Beirut for Tel Aviv’,” al-Akhbar newspaper on Monday quoted Nasrallah as telling a group of Lebanese emigrants.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
