The pro-Iranian Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday to avenge the Israeli assassination of the movement’s top commander, Fuad Shukr, with an imminent retaliatory attack on Israel.
“Our response is coming,” Nasrallah said during the funeral of Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander and the head its operations in southern Lebanon.
His comments came shortly before at least four Syrian nationals were killed when an Israeli strike hit a building in southern Lebanon, security sources and the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
The ministry said that large quantities of body parts were found and will be tested to determine the final number of dead.
It added that five Lebanese citizens were also wounded when the Israeli strike hit an area between the towns of Shamaa and Tayr Harfa in the western sector of southern Lebanon.
The situation between Lebanon and Israel has deteriorated since Tuesday, after the killings Shukr in Beirut’s southern suburbs and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Before the Israeli strike on Thursday, Nasrallah stressed that Israel and those behind Shukr’s death must “inevitably wait for our next response,” stressing that “there is no discussion or debate about this,” and reiterating that “between us and you are the days, the nights, and the battlefield.”
He added that they are looking for “a real response and real opportunity.”
Israel’s military killed Shukr on Tuesday evening. A few hours later, Haniyeh was killed in an attack in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Since then, there have been fears of a potentially large, coordinated attack on Israel by Iran, Hezbollah and other allied militias in the region.
“We are in an open battle on all fronts that has entered a new phase,” said the Hezbollah secretary general via a video link message at the Shukr’s funeral in Beirut.
Nasrallah said the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran was an “attack on Iran’s honor.”
Nasrallah said he had been in constant contact with Shukr, who trained most of Hezbollah’s commanders and was a “pillar” of the militia, before his death.
Shukr was a prominent friend of former Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyah, who was targeted in a car bomb attack in Damascus in 2008.
The killing of Shukr is considered Israel’s worst blow against the Shiite militia since the killing of Mughniyah more than 15 years ago.
Mughnijah was a founding member of Hezbollah and is said to have played a key role in numerous kidnappings and attacks in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Argentina.
