Hezbollah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah said Israel has crossed "all red lines" during a fiery Sunday speech after the Lebanese militant group exchanged a barrage of attacks with the neighboring nation.
Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Sunday, in what it called a preemptive strike on Hezbollah targets. The Israeli military said Hezbollah was planning to launch a barrage of rockets and missiles toward Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said around 100 fighter jets had "struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels" at more than 40 sites.
Hezbollah later on Sunday announced its response.
"Islamic Resistance fighters started an aerial attack with a large number of drones towards the Zionist depth and a quality Israeli military target that will be unveiled later, adding that, simultaneously, the Islamic Resistance targeted a number of the enemy's sites, barracks and Iron Dome platforms in northern occupied Palestine with a large number of missile," the group said in a statement published by Hezbollah-owned media organization Al-Manar.
Three deaths were confirmed in Lebanon, and one was confirmed in Israel, Reuters reported. Newsweek reached out to the IDF and the Lebanese embassy in Washington, D.C. via email for comment on Sunday.
In remarks later on Sunday, Nasrallah said that Israel had "crossed all red lines with its attack on Beirut's southern suburbs," according to Lebanese news site Naharnet. He also downplayed the impact of the Israeli strikes, saying "only two of our rocket launchpads were hit by the strikes after our operation and not before it."
"Israel lied when it said that it hit our strategic missiles, knowing that we did not use them and we might use them in the future," he said.
In a statement published by Al-Manar, Hezbollah said "our military operation for today has been completed."
Sunday's exchange of fire appeared to have ended by mid-morning, and both sides said they had confined their attacks to military targets, according to the Associated Press.
The violence was among the biggest exchanges of fire since hostilities erupted between Israel and Hezbollah with the launch of Israel's war against Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, in Gaza. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire since Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, but avoided a major escalation.
Sunday's escalation stoked growing fears of a wider regional conflict, potentially drawing in the United States and Iran, as talks about a Gaza ceasefire deal continue in Egypt.
President Joe Biden was "closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon," Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told the AP. "At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts. We will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability."
The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon sent out an email, which was reviewed by Newsweek, to U.S. citizens in the country, saying it was "closely monitoring the security situation in Lebanon, particularly in the wake of the intensified cross-border fire that took place early in the day on August 25."
The email warned "the security environment remains complex and can change quicky."
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