Nasrallah: America wants Hamas eliminated more than Israel does

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah accused the US of being mainly responsible for the war in Gaza, saying "the one who insists on the goal of eliminating Hamas is America more than Israel," during a speech on Friday afternoon.

"For every drop of blood shed in Gaza and the entire region, the primary responsibility falls on [US President Joe] Biden, [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, and [US Secretary of Defense Lloyd] Austin," claimed Nasrallah, saying that Israeli officials simply serve as "tools for implementation" and that Israel is "America's base in the region.

The Hezbollah leader warned during the speech that Israel would "pay in blood" for civilians killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah, adding that Israel had "gone too far in this matter."

Nasrallah called the rocket barrage that hit Kiryat Shmona on Thursday an "initial response" to recent airstrikes.

Intensive fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border

Nasrallah pointed to two airstrikes which targeted Nabatieh and Al-Sawaneh in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people altogether. "The enemy’s goal, by killing civilians, is to pressure the resistance to stop the front, and the answer to this matter must be through continuing and escalating the resistance work on the front," said Nasrallah.

The Hezbollah leader insisted that Israel could have hit the targets it was trying to hit in Nabatieh and Al-Sawaneh without harming civilians.

Nasrallah bragged about his movement's missile capabilities, stating that Hezbollah has precision missiles that they can use to target any location from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat.

Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese public as well, saying "We are faced with two options: resistance or surrender. The option of resistance is the least costly, and the price of surrender is very high." In a speech given earlier this week, Nasrallah focused on justifying Hezbollah's decision to unilaterally attack Israel through a series of similar claims.

Referencing reports about potential negotiations concerning the Lebanese-Israeli land border, Nasrallah stressed that "the land borders have already been demarcated and any negotiations will be on the basis of 'Get out of our Lebanese land.'”

The Hezbollah leader reiterated conspiracy theories about the October 7 massacre, claiming in his speech that Israel has not provided the world with a "single piece of evidence" that the massacre occurred.

Besides for visits by foreign press and world leaders to the sites of the massacre and a large amount of forensic evidence, there are also hours of footage published by both Israelis and Hamas themselves detailing the deliberate murder, abuse, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7.

Nasrallah's speech comes after a week of intensive fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

On Wednesday, an IDF soldier was killed after a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon toward the Safed area. An IDF base was directly hit by the barrage.

After the barrage, the Israeli Air Force launched extensive airstrikes in Lebanon, eliminating numerous Hezbollah terrorists, including Ali Muhammad AlDabs, a central commander in Hezbollah's Radwan Force who was responsible for organizing the roadside bombing near Megiddo last year.