Hezbollah chief threatens Cyprus and warns Israel against “borderless fighting”

After days of intensified clashes between Hezbollah and Israel, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militia, warned on Wednesday that there will be “no place safe from our missiles and drones” if it escalates into open war. He also threatened Cyprus if it allows Israel to use its airports and bases in a full-scale conflict.

“The enemy knows full well that we have prepared for the most difficult days, and the enemy knows what is coming,” Nasrallah said. “If war is imposed, the resistance will fight without constraints, rules or limits.”

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides responded to the threat by saying that his country was “in no way involved,” said Comments on social media.

In his first public comments following the recent escalation of violence on the Lebanon-Israel border, Nasrallah said Hezbollah, which is closely allied with Iran, did not want a major conflict, but stressed that the group was ready for war and had so far used only a fraction of its weapons. If necessary, Nasrallah said, Hezbollah could unleash them in precision strikes on “a range of targets.”

“The enemy knows to reckon with us on land, in the air and at sea,” he said.

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, when Hezbollah began exchanging fire with Israeli forces, more than 100 civilians have been killed in Israel and Lebanon and more than 150,000 have been displaced from their homes. But cross-border fighting in recent weeks has been among the fiercest yet, raising fears that another front in the war could emerge as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza.

Western diplomats have tried to calm the mood by meeting with Lebanese and Israeli politicians to prevent a full-blown war. On Tuesday, however, the Israeli military said it had approved operational plans for a possible offensive in Lebanon, but did not say when or if the plans would be implemented. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 2006, each time to push back militants attacking across the border.