Gallant threatens Hezbollah: “What we do in Gaza we can do in Beirut.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant on Saturday warned the Lebanese group Hezbollah against escalating border fighting, adding that what Israel is doing in Gaza can be done in Beirut.

“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that could break out,” Gallant told soldiers in a video broadcast on Israeli television channels.

According to Reuters, Gallant added: “(Hezbollah) is making mistakes… and those who will pay the price first and foremost are the Lebanese citizens. What we do in Gaza we can do in Beirut.”

On Saturday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah announced that his militants had begun, in recent days, to use new weapons against Israel from southern Lebanon, as well as sending reconnaissance marches into deeper areas of Lebanon.

The day after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, Hezbollah began daily bombing of Israeli sites from southern Lebanon. The Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad also carried out infiltration operations and launched several rockets.

Israel responds by targeting Hezbollah group movements near the border and launching bombings on Lebanese areas along the border strip.

In their operations on Friday, according to Nasrallah, Hezbollah fighters used Katyusha rockets and drones, which reached “deeper areas than ever before, in quantity, quality and depth.”

Since October 8, the escalation has resulted in the killing of 91 people by Israeli fire on the Lebanese side, including 68 Hezbollah militants and at least 11 civilians, including a Reuters photographer and a woman with her three granddaughters, according to a tally compiled by Agency France-Presse.

Since the escalation began, the Israeli army has counted the deaths of at least six soldiers and two civilians.