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The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Thursday that its conflict with Israel had entered a new phase after an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, this week. But his vow to respond fell far short of the fiery pledge to escalate that some residents and officials had feared.
Mr. Nasrallah’s speech had been nervously awaited since the Israeli strike on Tuesday, which killed Fuad Shukr, one of his close confidantes and a top-ranking Hezbollah commander. A top Hamas leader was killed in Iran hours later, fueling worries around the Middle East that Israel’s hostilities with Iran and its allies could erupt into all-out regional war.
But although Mr. Nasrallah promised that Hezbollah would respond, he equivocated on the scope and nature of that retaliation.
“We have entered a new phase,” he said, speaking in a televised address during the funeral for Mr. Shukr. “You do not realize the red lines you have crossed,” warned Mr. Nasrallah, addressing Israel directly.
“The response will come, whether spread out or simultaneously,” he added.
Officials and diplomats across the Middle East had been looking to the speech for any indication of whether Hezbollah would alter course in its long-running conflict with Israel, either by escalating its military response or seeking to lower the pressure and avoid all-out war. The speech by Mr. Nasrallah on Thursday appeared to straddle that line.
Although he said the group and its allies were working on “a true response, not a show response as some are trying to suggest,” he added that Israel’s reaction would determine whether the war escalates.
The targeted Israeli strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday that killed Mr. Shukr also killed five civilians and wounded scores more, according to the Lebanese authorities.
The strike on Tuesday, which Israel quickly announced, was notable for several reasons, analysts said: It killed a high-ranking figure at the core of Hezbollah’s inner sanctum; it caused civilian casualties; and it hit less than three miles from downtown Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city, which had largely been spared direct violence. Some analysts said that Hezbollah could feel compelled to respond strongly because of those facts.
But Hezbollah has lowered the intensity of its attacks along Israel’s northern border since the strike on Tuesday, an indication that the group recognizes the stakes. Mr. Nasrallah said during his speech that he had ordered his fighters to remain calm, and that the group would resume operations on Friday. The retaliation for the killing of Mr. Shukr would come later, he added.
“The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights and the battlefield,” said Mr. Nasrallah, again addressing Israel.
After Mr. Nasrallah finished his speech, Mr. Shukr’s coffin was carried onto the street outside and met a sea of mourners. The people frantically jostled back and forth to get closer to his body, pumping their fists in the air as the funeral procession moved through Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“No escape, no retreat,” the crowd shouted, repeating chants that echoed over the loudspeaker. Some held up pictures of fighters who had been killed. Others hoisted Hezbollah and Palestinian flags.
“We are not afraid of war,” said Fatima Nizan al-Din, 18, as she left the funeral. “We certainly expect an escalation.”
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Hwaida Saad from Beirut.
