Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militant group, has previously said it will continue to strike Israel until its offensive in Gaza comes to an end.
In a rare and exclusive interview with NBC News in April, the political party and militia’s second-in-command Naim Qassem said that Hezbollah was determined not to ramp up its attacks across Lebanon’s southern border, but said it would respond in kind to any Israeli escalation.
“We didn’t expect the war would last this long because we didn’t think that Netanyahu was that foolish, same for (Biden) and the other countries,” Qassem said at the time. The U.S. views both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been evacuated from their homes for months, as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have plummeted to their worst point since a 2006 war.
The possibility of a new Israeli offensive in Lebanon has fueled concerns of a wider conflict, after eight months of war that local officials say has already killed more than 36,000 people in Gaza.
Some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, according to Israeli officials, which marked a major escalation in the decadeslong conflict. Some 120 people taken hostage are believed to remain held in Gaza, with about a third of those confirmed dead.
Andrea Mitchell, Monica Alba, Raf Sanchez, Reuters and Associated Press contributed.
