Hezbollah Leader Threatens Tel Aviv
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hezbollah Leader Threatens Tel Aviv*
By SAM F. GHATTAS
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 2:37 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah's leader offered Thursday to stop rocket
attacks on northern Israel in return for an end to airstrikes throughout
Lebanon.
However, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also vowed to fire rockets into Tel Aviv
if Israel strikes Beirut proper. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly
bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in southern suburbs of Beirut.
"If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your
usurping entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said in a taped televised
speech.
In issuing the threat, Nasrallah offered his first opening toward
diminishing the three-week-old conflict, which has taken more than 500
Lebanese lives and killed more than 50 Israelis.
"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages,
civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli
settlement or city," he said.
In his statement, Nasrallah also said his fighters have inflicted
"maximum casualties" on Israeli ground troops and that his guerrillas
are "fighting until the last breath and last bullet."