Hezbollah will retaliate against Israel after drones crashed in Beirut's suburbs, but a new war between the old enemies remains unlikely, the Iran-backed movement's deputy leader has said.
"I rule out that the atmosphere is one of war, it is one of a response to an attack," Sheikh Naim Qassem told Russia's RT Arabic channel on Tuesday night. "Everything will be decided at its time."
Lebanon's Hezbollah is preparing a "calculated strike" in response to the drones but seeks to avoid a new war with Israel, two sources allied to the movement told Reuters earlier on Tuesday.
A reaction “is being arranged in a way which wouldn’t lead to a war” that Hezbollah does not want, one of the sources said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah should “calm down” after Nasrallah said his Iranian-backed movement would respond to the drone crash.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the drones, including one that had exploded. But in a speech on Sunday, Nasrallah described it as the first Israeli attack in Lebanon since the two sides fought a month-long war in 2006.
One of the drones blew up near the ground, causing some damage to Hezbollah’s media center in the southern suburbs which it dominates.
“I heard what Nasrallah said. I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down. He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies,” Netanyahu said in a speech.
Israeli officials have declined to comment when asked if Israel was responsible for the drones, which Hezbollah says were rigged with explosives.
In response to questions about the origin or target of the drones, Qassem did not give details.
He said Hezbollah deemed it an attack that it must respond to, so that Israel does not upset the status quo and set its own terms.
"We want the strike to be a surprise...and so there is no interest in diving into the details," he added. "The coming days will reveal this."
