Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Monday that any Israeli attack on Lebanese soil would meet "inevitable retaliation" by the Shiite terrorist group.
The statement was made prior to the IDF's announcement Tuesday that it has launched an operation seeking to thwart Hezbollah tunnels running under the Israel-Lebanon border.
On Monday, the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Akhbar newspaper published an editorial stating, "Nasrallah has spoken. The only option against Israeli aggression is inevitable retaliation."
Last Thursday, Hezbollah released a video warning Israel against striking Lebanon, featuring aerial footage of strategic targets in Israel, including the IDF's headquarters in Tel Aviv. The footage was captioned "If you strike, you will regret it."
Hezbollah is believed to be in possession of 150,000 missiles, which Nasrallah has repeatedly boasted can hit virtually anywhere in Israel.
Recent days have seen Lebanese's media speculate that Israel was preparing to targets Hezbollah infrastructure as well as Iranian assets in the country, given intelligence indicating that Iran has been delivering advanced weapons and equipment directly to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
These speculations were further fueled by reports of an urgent meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels Monday, where the two discussed "regional developments."
Israel media reported that Netanyahu was poised to ask Pompeo for the United States' support in the event of an Israeli strike on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon.
