Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, threatened neighboring Cyprus on Wednesday if it opened its bases and airports to Israel, stating that “no place” in Israel would be spared in the event of a full-fledged war.
“The enemy knows well that we have prepared ourselves for the worst… and that no place… will be spared our rockets,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.
Israel must expect “us on land, by sea and by air”, he said.
“The enemy really fears that the resistance will penetrate Galilee” in northern Israel, he said, adding that this was possible “in the context of a war that could be imposed on Lebanon”.
Since the Palestinian terrorist group’s attack on Israel on October 7, which sparked a conflict in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hezbollah, a potent Lebanese force associated with Hamas, have engaged in almost daily cross-border gunfire.
The Israeli military stated on Tuesday that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated” following an increase in the intensity of the engagements in recent weeks.
Israel Katz, the foreign minister, has already threatened to destroy Hezbollah in a “total war”.
“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” Nasrallah threatened.
Cyprus is near the coasts of both Israel and Lebanon, and it has cordial relations with both nations.
In accordance with the terms of the treaties that gave the island of Cyprus its independence in 1960, Britain has continued to exercise sovereign sovereignty over two base sites within its former territory.
Not only that, but Nasrallah cautioned that since October, his group has only utilized “a part of” its arsenal.
“We have developed some of our weapons… and we are keeping others for the days that will come,” he said.
“Years ago we talked about 100,000 fighters… today, we have greatly exceeded” that number, Nasrallah said.
An AFP count indicates that at least 478 individuals have died in Lebanon as a result of the Israel-Lebanon fighting, the majority of whom were militants but also included 93 civilians.
According to Israeli authorities, the country’s north has seen the deaths of at least 15 troops and 11 civilians.
