Israel declined to comment.
Tehran:
Iran said on Saturday it expects Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah to reach deeper into Israel and no longer be confined to military targets after Israel killed Hezbollah’s military commander.
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire almost daily with Israeli forces, saying it has been targeting military positions across the border, since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the war in Gaza.
But an Israeli-claimed attack on an overcrowded residential area south of Beirut changed the calculation, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said.
“We expect… Hezbollah to choose more targets and strike deeper in its response,” the mission said, cited by the official IRNA news agency.
“Second, it will not limit its response to military targets.”
Tuesday’s attack killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, five civilians – three women and two children – also died.
Israel said Shukr was responsible for launching rockets that killed 12 young men in the annexed Golan Heights and has directed Hezbollah attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.
“Hezbollah and the (Israeli) regime observed certain lines,” including limiting attacks on border areas and military targets, the Iranian mission said.
The Beirut strike crossed that line, he added.
Hours after Shukr’s murder, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a pre-dawn “attack” on his accommodation in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.
Israel declined to comment.
On Thursday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel and “those behind it must await our inevitable response” to the killings of Shukr and Haniyeh.
Iran and Hamas also promised to retaliate.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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