[NAHARNET] Hezbollah chief Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
on Friday vowed that Israel will "pay in blood" for the killing of civilians in south Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, as he responded to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s threats to strike deep in Lebanon.
"The enemy will pay in blood for the killing of our women and kiddies in Nabatiyeh, Sawwaneh and elsewhere," Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Hezbollah’s ’Martyr Leaders Day’.
"I will leave the matter to the battlefield," he added.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas
 ...the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
war broke out on October 7. Wednesday was the bloodiest day in more than four months of cross-border exchanges, with 10 civilians and five Hezbollah members including a commander killed.
Hezbollah said it retaliated on Thursday by firing dozens of rockets into the settlement of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel and Nasrallah reiterated on Friday that it was only an "initial response."
Describing the Nabatiyeh and Sawwaneh strikes as "deliberate massacres," Nasrallah said Israel’s killing of civilians has "a special sensitivity" to Hezbollah.
"The enemy is killing our leaders, jihadists and families and it is destroying our homes, but this will not push us to retreat or give up our responsibilities," he stressed.
"The enemy must know that it went too far by its targeting of civilians," Nasrallah warned.
Responding to threats voiced Thursday by Israel’s defense minister, Nasrallah described Gallant as a "lunatic" and warned that Hezbollah "possesses a massive and precise missile power that enables it to strike from Kiryat Shmona all the way to Eilat" in Israel's far south.
Gallant warned Thursday that Israel "can attack not only at 20 kilometers (from the border), but also at 50 kilometers, and in Beirut and anywhere else."
"Some are talking about the cost of resistance and its consequences in Lebanon, and these people are calling on us to surrender. The truth is that we are before two choices -- resistance or surrender -- and the price of surrender is hefty, dangerous and very critical," Nasrallah added.
The cross-border exchanges have killed at least 268 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 40 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
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