‘Stop playing with fire,’ Nasrallah warns Israel

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised speech on Tuesday in commemoration of the martyrdom anniversary of a number of top Hezbollah commanders, including Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in February 2008.

Nasrallah insisted that Hezbollah does not seek a military confrontation but it will display a resistance much stronger than ever before if it is pushed into one.

“Israel has never committed itself to international law, [the regime has] destroyed cities and killed civilians in all its wars,” the Hezbollah chief said in the televised speech.

“We are not looking for a confrontation but we do not forget the blood of our martyrs,” he underlined. “If a confrontation happens we will respond to it; if you attack our cities we will attack yours; if you target our villages, we will bomb your settlements.”

Referring to Zionist regime’s combat drills along the Lebanese border, Nasrallah warned the occupying regime against intimidation and said the combat drills would be a dangerous game for the Israelis and would bring about undesirable consequences.

“Should war erupt, Israelis will see events they haven’t witness since 1948. So, stop playing with fire. We are in the Resistance era,” Nasrallah said, in reference to the illegal creation of the regime on occupied Palestinian territory in 1948.

During the televised speech, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement hailed as a "positive step” Washington’s announcement to stop its support for the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen.

Nasrallah said the US decision came as a result of the “steadfastness of the Yemenis” as the Yemeni forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees are in an advanced position on all fronts.

The Hezbollah chief also stressed that the announcement was a cause for concern for the Saudi and Israeli regime.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah pointed to the so-called deal of the century initiated by former US President Donald Trump and said the deal had lost steam.

"Nobody is talking today about the deal that seems to have ended or is in a state of retreat and is out of breath, as a result of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian leaderships, and the axis of resistance," he noted.

Defying international outcry, Trump last January announced the general provisions of his long-delayed plan at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side.

Moreover, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah censured the so-called agreements between a few Arab states and Israel regime on the normalization of relations, and said the regime was “exaggerating” the issue for political gains.

“The Israeli regime is exaggerating the issue of normalization for political benefits, on the other hand, we see opposition in some Arab countries against their governments’ normalization with Israel,” Nasrallah said.

“Arab individuals who are boasting about their Israeli visits don’t represent the 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims; those have even admitted of being paid to make such visits,” the Hezbollah chief added.

The normalization deals have drawn widespread condemnation from Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. They say the deals are "a stab in the back" of the Palestinians.