Hezbollah threatens Israel after military says Lebanon offensive ready

Hezbollah supporters raise their fists and cheer as they watch a speech given by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on a screen during a ceremony to commemorate the death of senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55, who was killed last week by an Israeli strike in south Lebanon, in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

Hezbollah on Wednesday said none of Israel would be spared in a war, after Israel said it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, stoking fears of the Gaza conflict spreading.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said "no place" in Israel would "be spared our rockets", in a televised address broadcast amid spiralling tensions across the Israel-Lebanon border.

Nasrallah — whose powerful Iran-backed group has exchanged near-daily fire with Israel since its ally Hamas's Oct. 7 attack — also threatened the nearby island nation of Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel "to target Lebanon."

The Mediterranean island is home to two British military bases including an airbase, but they are in sovereign British territory and not controlled by the Greek Cypriot government.

Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides denied his country's involvement in the war and said it was "part of the solution", pointing to its role in a maritime humanitarian corridor to Gaza "recognized by the entire international community".

Meanwhile, the war between Israel and Hamas raged in Gaza, with Israeli air strikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants.

Witnesses and the civil defense agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported an Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone strikes and shelling killed at least seven people.