Hezbollah chief Nasrallah promises Israel 'will pay in blood' for killing of civilians

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah promised that Israel would pay "in blood" in a speech on Friday in response to Israel's killing of ten civilians in southern Lebanon two days earlier.

The speech came after a week of intensified cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel, with the former killing one Israeli soldier and injuring eight more in missile attacks on 14 February.

Israel responded with wide-ranging airstrikes on the same day, killing three fighters and ten civilians, including three children and seven members of a single family.

"The price of this blood will also be blood, not positions, spy devices … The answer to the massacre must be to continue the resistance work on the front and escalate it," Nasrallah said.

Notably, Nasrallah did not repeat the promise he made in November, when he vowed that Hezbollah would kill one civilian for each killed by Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border exchanges for more than four months, following the surprise 7 October attack Hamas attack on the Gaza envelope.

While clashes have generally been concentrated within a few kilometers of the Lebanon-Israel border, Israel has also carried out several targeted assassinations deep within Lebanese territory since January.

Escalating tensions between the two parties have raised fears of a full-blown war between Israel and Lebanon.

On Wednesday, the head of Israel's Army Lt. General Herzi Halevi said that Israel is preparing for war in the north and vowed to "push back" Hezbollah.

In his speech, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah "has enormous missile capacity" which could stretch all the way to the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea.

Western and Arab powers have tried to head off a full-blown war by mediating between the two parties and seeking an implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war.

Lebanese officials, in addition to Hezbollah, however, have said that they feel international efforts are aimed at ensuring the security of the about 100,000 residents of northern Israel who have been displaced, and do not benefit Lebanon.

Hezbollah has vowed not to engage in negotiations until a ceasefire in Gaza is achieved.

"When the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south," Nasrallah said.