Hizbullah Official Says Group to Respond Deep inside Israel

A Hizbullah official said Friday that his group’s anticipated retaliation against Israel will take place deep inside Israel.

“The stance of Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has pushed the Zionist enemy to live in a state of extreme terror, panic and caution, to an extent that it has started hiding behind dummies in its military vehicles,” ex-MP Mohammed Yaghi, who is Nasrallah’s executive aide, said.

He was referring to Nasrallah’s announcement on Sunday that Hizbullah will retaliate to the death of two Hizbullah members in an Israeli airstrike in Syria and to an Israeli drone explosion over Hizbullah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

"I say to the Israeli army along the border, from tonight be ready and wait for us," Nasrallah said. "What happened yesterday will not pass."

Addressing Israeli residents, Nasrallah added: "Do not rest, do not be reassured, and do not bet for a single moment that Hizbullah will allow... aggression of this kind."

But Yaghi hinted Friday that the response will not be on the border but rather deep inside Israel.

“Our decision is to strike this enemy, which has launched a direct attack on us, on a normal house in (Syria’s) Aqraba and in Beirut’s southern suburbs (through a drone explosion). This is not a mere threat but a real action after which the enemy will learn not to commit new follies,” Yaghi said.

“We have prepared equipment, weapons and personnel to confront the enemy and the resistance is today much stronger than the pre-2006 aggression era. We will let the enemy taste the bitterness and it will regret its deed and aggression very much. They struck deep inside and we will respond deep inside and we will have another response for their drones,” Yaghi added.

One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building.

Nasrallah vowed in a pre-scheduled speech on Sunday evening to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against the Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.