Attack on Zionist Troops Start of ‘New Phase’

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah:

BEIRUT – Sunday’s attack on an Israeli military vehicle is the start of a "new phase” in the conflict with the occupying regime, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah said late Monday.

"We no longer have red lines,” Nasrallah said during a televised speech, a day after a Hezbollah unit launched missiles at the Zionist regime’s Wolf armed vehicle near the Afivim military base.

He said the message sent by the attack was to warn Zionists that if they attack Lebanon, all of their "border and troops” would be "at risk” from a Hezbollah retaliation that he said could come at any time.

"For those in the international community who are concerned about stability in the region, I tell them to talk to the Israelis and tell them that turning a blind eye is over, and Lebanon will no longer accept violations against its sovereignty."

Hezbollah has retaliated against "Israeli aggressions" by hitting targets in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area, but Sunday's attack took place within the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Lebanon claims Shebaa Farms as its own, but the Zionist regime says the territory is part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which it occupies.

"For decades, the Israelis could not stand that someone would touch their border… What happened yesterday is that the most important Israeli red line for decades has been broken by the Islamic resistance," said Nasrallah.

"It's no longer a red line. It's finished," he said.

The greatest aspect of Sunday’s attack was the mere fact that it was achieved "despite Israeli threats,” he added.

Nasrallah's comments came a day after Hezbollah fired anti-tank rockets on a military vehicle inside Occupied Palestine in retaliation for an Israeli drone attack in Beirut a week earlier.

Hezbollah said its retaliation killed and wounded Israeli soldiers inside the military vehicle. The occupying regime fired at least 40 incendiary and cluster devices towards Lebanese villages, according to the Lebanese Army.

In a video statement shared on Twitter on Monday, Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect of future military action to prevent Hezbollah from getting missiles that could be fired with increased accuracy at targets in Occupied Palestine.

"We will continue to do whatever is necessary to defend Israel at sea, on land and in the air. We will continue to act against the threat of the precision-guided rockets," he said.
Tensions have escalated as a result of a series of Israeli incursions into Lebanese territory over the past week.

The flare-up on the Lebanese border follows a series of suspected Israeli attacks against targets in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. 

Last week, Iraq said it intended to file a complaint with the United Nations after finding the occupying regime of Israel was "certainly" behind several recent attacks on bases used by government-aligned paramilitary groups.

Meanwhile, an airstrike by the Zionist regime on the outskirts of Damascus martyred two Hezbollah fighters on August 25. A day later, two Israeli drones crashed in south Beirut.
On Monday, Nasrallah said the unmanned planes were on a mission that they failed to achieve, but he didn't elaborate on that mission's objectives.

The Hezbollah chief also warned the occupying regime that its drones are not safe in Lebanese skies. "It is our right and Lebanon's right to defend our land, and we will confront Israeli drones in Lebanon's sky," he said.

Nasrallah also blamed Netanyahu for sparking the recent escalation ahead of the upcoming Israeli elections on September 17.

"The Israelis must know that what happened is a result of Netanyahu's stupidity - who cannot see anything but how to save himself from the judgment against his corruption cases," Nasrallah said.

Netanyahu, who failed to form a ruling coalition regime after a vote in April, has been investigated in relation to several corruption cases.