Hezbollah would pay an unimaginable price for attacking Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday after the leader of the Iranian proxy group Hassan Nasrallah warned that a wide regional war was possible.
“As for the northern front, I reiterate to our enemies – do not be mistaken about us,” Netanyahu said in a special video address on Friday.
“Such a mistake will be very costly. You will pay an unimaginable price,” he stressed, as he urged the group not to test Israel.
Netanyahu spoke as concern has grown that Israel could be forced to fight Hezbollah along its northern border even as it engages in a military campaign in the south to oust the Iranian proxy group Hamas from Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had harsh words for Iran and its proxy groups such as Hezbollah when he visited the region, starting with Israel on Friday, in an attempt to ensure that the Gaza War which began on October 7, does not spill over into larger regional conflicts.
“We are determined that there not be a second or third front opened in this conflict,” Blinken said, adding that US President Joe Biden has “said on day one to anyone thinking of opening a second front, taking advantage of the situation, don’t.”
To back up that message, the US has sought support from “regional partners” and has deployed “two aircraft carriers battlegroups to the region,” Blinken said
“You Americans are fully aware that if an all out war break out, your fleet will be of no good, you aerial warplanes will be pointless and you will pay a heavy priced”
Hassan Nasrallah
This includes action “against missiles coming from Yemen in the direction of Israel, shooting them down; including as well with strikes that we took in response to multiple attacks on our personnel in Iraq and Syria,” Blinken said.
“We’re committed to deterring aggression from any part and we’ll take the steps necessary to deal with it,” Blinken added.
First remarks, weeks after initial attacks
Nasrallah in Lebanon issued his first major address since Hamas sparked a Gaza war with its infiltration into southern Israel in which it killed over 1,400 people and seized over 240 people hostage.
He warned Israel and the US against striking Lebanon, which he said, would be the biggest act of folly in the history of their existence.
Few knew, including Hezbollah, of the October 7 attack prior to its execution, Nasrallah said, stating that its was purely a “100 precent” Palestinian affairs.
Since October 8, however, Hezbollah has been involved in greater conflict along Israel’s northern border, he explained, nothing that the Gaza war had already spread to the north.
“All scenario are open,” he said, noting that “we can adopt [any of the options] at any time.”
The only way to prevent such a war is for Israel to halt its against Gaza, he said. But although he warned that Israel was on the verge of defeat and accused it of killing of Palestinians, the largely fingered the United States as the primary driver of the war.
"You, the Americans, can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression," Nasrallah said. "Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and I am talking to the Americans, must quickly halt the aggression on Gaza."
To the US, he said, “your naval fleets in the Mediterranean cannot and will not and cause us to fear.”
Nasrallah added that Hezbollah forces would best those carriers in battle.
About the US fleet, he said, “We have prepared for them what it takes, remember your defeats.”
“You Americans are fully aware that if an all out war break out, your fleet will be of no good, you aerial warplanes will be pointless and you will pay a heavy priced,” he stated.
If Israel wants to avoid a regional war it must quickly halt tis attacks against Gaza, Nasrallah said.
Reuters contributed to this report.