A senior Hezbollah commander said the terrorist organization does not want an expanded war with Israel Tuesday, the same day that it launched a drone attack against an Israeli army base.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group, claimed the Tuesday attack was in retribution for an Israeli strike that killed Wissam al-Tawil, who commanded Hezbollah's Radwan forces.
Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem released a televised speech stating that his group does not seek an all-out war with Israel, "but if Israel expands it, the response is inevitable to the maximum extent required to deter Israel."
President Biden's administration has sought to prevent Israel's war against Hamas from boiling over into a regional conflict. Nevertheless, Iran's proxy terrorist groups have carried out more than 100 attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets since October.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that his government would do "anything" to bring back security for Israel.
"Hezbollah made a serious mistake about us in 2006, and is doing so again now. It thinks that we are weak as a spiderweb, and now sees what kind of spider we are," Netanyahu said while visiting soldiers at the northern border. "It sees here enormous power, national unity, and determination to do whatever is necessary to bring security back to the north, and I tell you that this is my policy."
"We naturally prefer that there be no large scale conflict, but that will not stop us," he added. "We have given Hezbollah an example of what happened to its friends in the south, and that is what will happen here in the north. We will do anything to bring back security."
TOP HAMAS OFFICIAL KILLED IN BEIRUT EXPLOSION, HEZBOLLAH MEDIA SAYS
When top Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri was killed in Beirut, Lebanon, last week, Hezbollah's chief claimed the organization was ready for war. Netanyahu adviser Ambassador Mark Regev told MSNBC that "Israel has not taken responsibility for this attack," but noted the "surgical" nature of the strike.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying the Jewish state "will not succeed in achieving the war's goals."
"Whoever thinks of war with us, in one word, he will regret it," Nasrallah said.
