Hezbollah Chief Vows 'New Phase' Of War During Slain Commander's Funeral

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a Thursday speech coming on the same day as the funeral of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr - who was slain in an Israeli airstrike on south Beirut on Tuesday - warned that Israel has crossed all "red lines" and thus the war has entered a "new phase".

"The enemy, and those who are behind the enemy, must await our inevitable response," he said in a speech video link broadcast at Shukr's funeral. Nasrallah starting years ago broadcasts his messages from secret, high-secure locations, given Israeli intelligence has long sought to track his whereabouts.

"You do not know what red lines you crossed," the Hezbollah leader said in reference to the separate strikes in Beirut and Tehran, the latter which killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday.

Hezbollah had only in the last 24 hours belatedly confirmed Shukr's death, considered Nasrallah’s "right-hand man" - after his body was pulled from under the rubble of a destroyed building in a south Beirut neighborhood on Wednesday.

Israel had boasted that it had "eliminated" the Shia paramilitary group's "most senior military commander" - while initially Lebanese sources had denied it while seeking confirmation.

"We, on all the support fronts, have entered a new phase," Nasrallah said, also in reference to Iran-linked 'resistance' groups across the Middle East. 

It didn't take long for Hezbollah to unleash its first big salvo of rockets in past 48 hours against Israel's Galilee region:

Overall, the speech while stern still suggested that Hezbollah wishes to keep the war 'limited' and contained, which has been the case over the past ten months of war. Still he vowed that vengeance is coming:

Nasrallah said unnamed countries had asked his group to retaliate in an "acceptable" way - or not at all. But he said it would be "impossible" for the group not to respond.

"There is no discussion on this point. The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights and the battlefield," Nasrallah added in a threat to Israel.

He stressed that "The response will come, whether spread out or simultaneously." He described that the "enemy" has "opened a problem with everyone" and they do not know where the response will come from.

Iran too, is mulling a direct response. Nasrallah alluded to this in the following at one point in the address: "Do they imagine that they will kill Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and that Iran will remain silent?"

Al Jazeera has described the following scenes in Iran's capital on Thursday:

Thousands have poured into the streets of Tehran to join the funeral procession of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as Iran weighs its options after promising to avenge his assassination.

The bodies of Haniyeh and his bodyguard, who was killed alongside him in a strike blamed on Israel, were marched amid chants in the capital. Flags of Palestine, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas were seen as organizers handed out posters of Haniyeh.

Banners honored the Palestinian leader and the late Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by a United States strike in 2020, among others.

"Avenging the blood of the guest is with the host, the world is waiting," read the headline of the ultraconservative Keyhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran’s supreme leader.

Israeli leadership has in response warned of all-out war if Iran attacks Israel, and yesterday Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that the US military would help Israel defend itself if it came under attack by Tehran. Presumably this would involve anti-air intercept assistance and the scrambling of fighter jets.