A new video released by Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has threatened several high-profile Israeli sites as tensions between the two sides that have previously warred continued to simmer.
The clip warns Israel, in both Arabic and Hebrew, against launching an attack against the group. It threatens that it is ready to strike a series of Israeli sites in retaliation.
The targets include Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona, the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv and air forces bases.
Israel is concerned that Hezbollah now has a much-larger and developed arsenal of weapons that it did when both fought a month-long war in 2006.
It is also wary that thousands of the group’s fighters have gained vital battlefield experience in Syria, where it is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
The clip ends with the message: “If you dare attack, you will regret it.”
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The video release comes a day after Israeli jets were accused of bombing several Syrian government sites in southern Syria and near the capital, Damascus.
Israel says it is acting defensively in Syria, preventing the transfer of weapons from Iran to both the Assad regime and Hezbollah that could be used against it.
Israel shares a northern border with Syria in the occupied Golan Heights. The military believes that Hezbollah militiants have established a presence in southern Syria. It fears that any conflict with the group would be multi-pronged: attacks from its shared border with Lebanon border and its shared border with Syria.
To prepare for any escalation, the Israeli military regularly conducts large-scale exercises in the north of the country to prepare for a Hezbollah invasion.
The 2006 conflict, sparked by a cross-border Hezbollah raid to capture Israeli soldiers, left more than a 1,000 Lebanese nationals dead, most of them civilians, and more than 100 Israelis, many of them soldiers.
