Hezbollah chief threatens attack on Tel Aviv in response to Beirut strikes

Hezbollah's Secretary General Naim Qassem threatened to target Tel Aviv in response to recent Beirut strikes, speaking in an address released on Wednesday.

"We will not leave the capital under Israeli enemy attacks. When Beirut is under attack by the enemy, the response must be in Tel Aviv." According to him, "The enemy must understand that things will not remain as such when Beirut is attacked."

An Israeli attack on Beirut earlier this week killed the group's media chief, Mohammad Afif.

Regarding the ongoing ceasefire negotiations mediated by the US, under envoy Amos Hochstein, Qassem said Hezbollah is awaiting Israel's response.

"We got the negotiation document, we examined the document and we transferred our notes about it," he said. This comes as Hochstein delayed his arrival in Israel as he attempts to smooth over more details of the deal.

In Qassem's opinion, "Israel expects to get through the agreement what it did not get on the ground," referring to the Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon. Several attempts to reach an end to hostilities have failed, including those proposed by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"In the past, we agreed to the Biden-Macron proposal on the basis of ending the war, but they killed Nasrallah," Qassem said. "We went through a real crisis after his assassination, but after 10 days we managed to recover and heal our wounds."