Hezbollah on Friday warned that if Israel continued to target Iran's presence in the region, Tehran could eventually retaliate by striking deep inside the Jewish nation.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's militant group, issued the warning during an event in Beirut, marking “Quds Day,” or Jerusalem Day.
The day is marked around the region as a traditional show of support for the Palestinians.
Hezbollah supporters and officials from allied Palestinian groups attended the event, and listened to Nasrallah giving his speech from an undisclosed location.
Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s during Lebanon's civil war by Iranian officers and Tehran has been arming and funding the group since.
Nasrallah's comments came two days after an Israeli missile strike on Syria killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded others, according to Syrian state media.
A Syrian opposition war monitor gave a higher death toll for the Wednesday strike that hit suburbs of Damascus, saying it killed six soldiers and four Iran-backed fighters.
Last month, an Israeli missile attack on Damascus killed two colonels with Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Iran retaliated shortly afterward by firing surface-to-surface missiles on what it described as an Israeli spy center in northern Iraqi city of Irbil.
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
It has acknowledged, however, that it targets the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Hezbollah that has fighters deployed in Syria.
It says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for the militant group.
Israel justifies its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria by saying that an Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line.
Friday's ceremony in Beirut was the first large gathering on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan held by Hezbollah since the coronavirus pandemic started.
AP
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