By Athena Papakosta

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warns of ‘no rules’ and ‘no limits’ war if Israel launches attack on Lebanon launching threats, for the first time, also against Cyprus how it will become a target if it allows Israel to use its territory for military purposes.

“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to attack Lebanon will mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war,” the leader of the Shiite, pro-Iranian organization pointed out.

A day earlier, Israel had approved operational plans for an attack on Lebanon, and the country’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, threatened Hezbollah with “total war” stressing that “we are very close to the moment when we decide to change the rules of the game (…). In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be hit hard.”

Nasrallah, pointing out that Hezbollah has new weapons, said the Shiite, pro-Iranian group does not want a full-scale war with Israel, but is acting in support of Hamas’s war in the Gaza Strip.

However, he explained that Hezbollah “is prepared for the worst-case scenario and Israel knows that.”

Drone footage has already been released showing targets, both military and civilian, in the Israeli city of Haifa in an attempt to prove that “the enemy must remain prepared in the north” adding that Israel’s threats have no effect in the organization’s calculations.

Nasrallah’s statements coincided with the return of Amons Hochstein, the special envoy of US President Joe Biden, back to Israel from Lebanon where he also had meetings without, however, the slightest sign of progress in efforts to prevent a generalized war between the two Countries.

It has already been a week since Hezbollah’s most senior commander was killed since hostilities began, with the Shiite group responding by launching its heaviest rocket and drone barrage yet against northern Israel.

Since the beginning of the conflicts on the Israeli-Lebanese border, more than 60,000 Israelis and at least 90,000 Lebanese have been displaced from their homes.

According to the United Nations, more than 400 people have been killed so far in Lebanon, including many civilians, and at least 25 – both soldiers and civilians – in Israel.

According to analysts, both sides are playing with fire.

One miscalculated move by Israel and the conflict will be stronger than the ongoing war with Hamas, as Hezbollah is stronger than the Islamist Palestinian organization.