Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday gave a speech marking the 11th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War and warned Israel against further military action in Lebanon.
"Any Israeli force that enters Lebanon will be met with a great defeat and humiliation compared to the last war," Nasrallah said. "Israel's goal in that war was to crush Hezbollah, but since then our power has only grown and the Israelis know it."
"Israel will suffer the same defeat that it suffered in 2006 but with greater force" if it attacks Lebanon again, he warned in the televised speech.
"Every time an Israeli official talks about Hezbollah's buildup, he admits in effect Israel's defeat against Hezbollah," Nasrallah claimed.
"The closure of the ammonia tank in Haifa shows that Israel respects the power of its enemies. Israel will consider a war in Lebanon only as a last resort," he stated.
Nasrallah, however, has been forced to live in an underground bunker since the 2006 Second Lebanon War – a fact which he denies. From there, he has continuously threatened Israel.
In June, he warned Israel against attacking Lebanon or Syria, claiming that "hundreds of thousands" of Arab and Muslim fighters would be ready to strike back.
In February, he warned Israel to “count to one million” before waging a new war on Lebanon, stressing that Hezbollah will not abide by any “red lines” in any future confrontation.
He previously said the group's rockets had the ability to strike the nuclear reactor at Dimona and its military infrastructure, as well as the Haifa ammonia tank.
A year ago Nasrallah threatened to strike the ammonia storage facility which he described as “Hezbollah’s nuclear bomb”.
