‘This could be war’: Hezbollah chief breaks silence as Israel bombs Lebanon

Israel has bombarded Lebanon with dozens of aerial strikes after Hezbollah’s chief broke his silence, saying explosive devices crossed “all red lines” and could be “called a declaration of war”.

Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of attacks across Lebanon’s southern border hours after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed Israel would face “tough retribution” for the deadly device blasts that killed terrorists.

On Friday morning (AEST), the Israeli army said it struck “hundreds of rocket launcher barrels” ready to be fired toward Israel as well as “approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites”, the army said in a statement.

There were more than 52 strikes from Israel, according to news agency NNA, with Lebanon security sources describing the attack as the heaviest aerial strikes since October.

In Hassan Nasrallah’s first speech since the attacks, he said the group suffered an “unprecedented” blow when about thousands of operatives’ communication devices exploded across Lebanon, which killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 across two days.

As he delivered his televised address, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut.

Nasrallah described the attacks as a “massacre” and a possible “act of war”, and said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not”.

About 25 Hezbollah terrorists were killed in the blasts, with a source close to the group saying at least 20 had died when their walkie-talkies blew up.

The preliminary findings of a Lebanese investigation found the pagers had been booby-trapped, a security official said.

The country’s mission to the United Nations concurred, saying in a letter that the probe showed “the targeted devices were professionally booby-trapped... before arriving in Lebanon, and were detonated by sending emails to the devices”.

Israel has not commented on the attacks in which 5000 Hezbollah communication devices – 4000 pagers and 1000 walkie-talkies – exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals.

But Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday, in reference to Israel’s border with Lebanon: “The centre of gravity is moving northward. We are at the start of a new phase in the war”.

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