Hezbollah leader breaks silence on Gaza war

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, addresses his followers for the first time since the start of the war in Gaza, in a speech that could shed light on whether his group plans to expand the conflict to a regional war.

Mr Nasrallah, who has not spoken publicly since Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, appeared via video link on Friday on a giant screen in Beirut, where thousands of his supporters had gathered to watch.

As the war has raised tensions in the Middle East, officials from across the region and beyond are keeping a close eye on Hezbollah, a Hamas ally also backed by Iran and committed to Israel’s destruction, seeking for signs that the violence could spread.

Hezbollah is a more powerful and advanced military force than Hamas, with tens of thousands of trained fighters, an arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets and a stockpile of precision-guided missiles that can strike sensitive targets deep inside Israel. Military analysts believe the group may also have other military capabilities that it has yet to reveal.

Mr. Nasrallah is a highly respected figure within the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of Iranian-backed militias in several Arab countries that share an anti-American and anti-Israel ideology and have begun to coordinate their operations more closely in recent years. . A decision by Hezbollah to start a full-scale war with Israel would likely encourage attacks from its allies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

As the death toll in Gaza from heavy Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions that began last week has risen into the high thousands, Hezbollah and Israel have clashed along the Israel-Lebanon border, attacking each other’s positions and attacking fighters. killed both sides. But analysts say Hezbollah and Israel so far appear to be coordinating their actions to avoid a wider war.

At the same time, Hezbollah has released videos of its fighters launching guided missiles at Israeli communications infrastructure along the border, presumably in an attempt to hinder Israeli surveillance.

Fighting along the border expanded on Thursday, with both Hezbollah and Hamas claiming responsibility for attacks in northern Israel, and Hezbollah announcing it had attacked an Israeli army position with exploding drones. Israel bombed sites in Lebanon that the army said were Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers.

In recent days, Hezbollah supporters have done the same shared videos on social media with glimpses of Mr Nasrallah and scenes of uniformed Hezbollah fighters preparing for battle, raising expectations that extensive military activity is on the way.