Nasrallah: Israel 'will cease to exist' if war erupts

(TIMES OF ISRAEL, AFP) – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday continued his terror organisation’s war of words with Israel, warning that if conflict erupts, the Jewish State “will cease to exist”.

In a televised speech marking 17 years since the end of the Second Lebanon War, the head of the Iran-backed Shiite terror group claimed that Israel’s military has gradually “weakened” since the “defeat” it allegedly suffered in 2006.

“After 17 years of attempts, preparation and development, the Israelis have been unable to restore the image of the Israeli army,” he said, according to the Al-Mayadeen news outlet.

“The Israeli army today is in its worst shape in history,” he added, referring to warnings by top IDF officers that military readiness has been hurt by reservist protests against the government’s judicial overhaul.

Nasrallah then addressed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s threat last week that Israel “will return Lebanon to the Stone Age” if there is a war.

“You too will be returned back to the Stone Age,” Nasrallah said in response.

He said it would take “a few high-precision missiles” for Hezbollah to destroy targets, including “civilian and military airports, airbases, power stations … and the Dimona [nuclear] reactor”.

The Hezbollah leader’s comments came amid a recent increase in Hezbollah activity along the border, in incidents that Israel sees as deliberate provocations, including the erection of two tents on the Israeli side of the United Nations-recognised Blue Line in the Mount Dov area. The Iran-backed group later took down one of the tents, while threatening to attack if Israel moves to dismantle the other one.

Other recent incidents have included camouflaged Hezbollah members walking along the border in violation of a UN resolution and Hezbollah activists crossing the Blue Line (though not the Israeli border fence) on numerous occasions, including attempts to damage the border fence and army surveillance equipment.

In April, dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel, injuring three and damaging buildings. Though Israel blamed the attack on the Palestinian terror group Hamas, it was seen as having been carried out with the tacit approval of Hezbollah, which maintains tight control of southern Lebanon.

Separately, in March, the IDF accused Hezbollah of sending a terrorist to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon and plant a bomb at a junction in northern Israel. The blast seriously wounded an Israeli man.

On Saturday, a senior commander in the Lebanese terror group warned that the next war between Israel and Hezbollah would take place in Israel’s Galilee region.

“Our battle will be in the Galilee and if the enemy and its tanks enter Lebanon, they will not be able to leave,” the commander said in an interview with the Hezbollah-linked Al-Manar TV network, which identified him as Hajj Jihad but blurred his face for the broadcast.

Hezbollah has long been the IDF’s most potent adversary on Israel’s borders, with an estimated arsenal of nearly 150,000 rockets and missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel.