Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned of a possible escalation following the group's retaliation against Israeli air raids earlier this week. His speech was broadcast by the Lebanese State TV on Saturday.
"The air raids that happened, and I warn them about this, do not mean that our response, even if it was on open land, will only happen on Chebaa farms. Our response could happen in the northern lands of occupied Palestine," said Nasrallah.
On Friday, the group said it launched rockets in the Chebaa farms area in response to rare Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon.
Ten of 19 rockets fired by Hezbollah were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system while six landed in open countryside. Three others fell short of the Lebanese border, according to the Israeli army.
SOT, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary-General said, "Yesterday, we wanted to take action in the field, not with a statement, so that we can tell the enemy that an airstrike, just to repeat it again, any air raids with Israeli weapons on Lebanon will be met with a timely and appropriate response, because we want to protect our country. It is clear."
"Yesterday's message is clear; regardless of how the situation is in Lebanon, be it hard, under pressure, terrible, or whatever it may be, to us, protecting Lebanon is our priority that we take responsibility for. We will protect our country and our people regardless of internal affairs. I also want to tell them to not bet on the pressures the Lebanese face and the condition of the resistance. Do not bet on the divisions among Lebanon's resistance, because those divisions are old," he said.
"This field specifically, with the farms, which is a military area that has no civilians or farmers, if we want to through rockets at it from a different angle, they may hit other targets we do not want. They may hit populated areas and force us into an unplanned confrontation. That is why, by virtue of geography and military tactics, we had to fire from those villages, which is why we went there. Not because they are next to Druze villages, or Christian ones, or Sunni villages. It is a shame for anyone to speak that way or to think that way or to accuse us of that," he added.
