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Manila Bulletin devider World devider Lebanon's Hezbollah bolsters attacks on Israel with new weapons: chief

Lebanon's Hezbollah bolsters attacks on Israel with new weapons: chief

Published Nov 12, 2023 12:30 am

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah's chief said on Saturday the group was using new weapons in its attacks against Israel, as exchanges of fire on Lebanon's southern border intensify while Israel battles Hamas militants in Gaza.

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Supporters of the Hezbollah Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement watch chief Hassan Nasrallah deliver a televised address on a large screen at a venue in Beirut on November 11, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. The frontier between the Lebanon and Israel has seen daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel, since October 7 when attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas sparked war. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

Over the past week, the Iran-backed group has "bolstered" its action "on the Lebanese front in terms of the number of operations, targets and the type of weapons", Hassan Nasrallah said in his second televised address since the Hamas-Israel war began.

The Shiite Muslim movement has used "Burkan missiles", for the first time, he said, adding that they could carry "a payload of 300-500 kilogrammes" (660-1,100 pounds).

The group has been using attack drones "for the first time in the history of the resistance" in Lebanon, he said, and has been flying "reconnaissance drones" deep into Israel daily, "some reaching Haifa, Acre and Safed" in the country's north.

Nasrallah's speech prompted a warning from Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said Lebanese citizens would "pay the price" and added: "What we're doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut."

Since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon's southern border has seen intensifying tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration.

Israeli fire has killed at least 68 Hezbollah fighters since last month, according to an AFP tally, as well as at least 11 civilians in Lebanon and 12 other combatants.

Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

Hezbollah's fighters "are putting themselves on the front line to launch rockets" at Israeli targets, Nasrallah said, adding that Israeli drones were constantly flying over southern Lebanon.

Noting attacks on Israel and on US troops in the Middle East by other Iran-backed groups, including from Iraq and Yemen, Nasrallah told Washington: "If you Americans want to stop these operations... you must stop the war on Gaza."

He said "several" Hezbollah members were killed in Syria on Friday, where the group has long been deployed on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in his country's civil war.

Hezbollah said on Friday that Israeli fire killed seven of its fighters, without specifying where or when they died.

Israel's military said it struck an organisation in Syria that was behind a drone crash into a school in southern Israel a day earlier.

Israeli officials say Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 240 hostage in the October 7 attacks that triggered the war.

Israel's subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

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