Israeli Minister Warns Hizbullah after Threats to Hit Reactor

Israel warned Hizbullah on Thursday against attacking it after Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to strike Israel’s nuclear reactor in any future war.

The comments by Nasrallah marked the first time his group explicitly threatened to target the reactor in the southern Israeli town of Dimona.

“If Nasrallah dares to fire at the Israel homefront or at its national infrastructure, all of Lebanon will be hit,” Yisrael Katz, Israel’s Minister of Intelligence, said in response to Nasrallah’s threats.

Earlier in the day, Nasrallah advised Israel to “dismantle the Dimona nuclear reactor,” warning that it poses a threat to Israel’s existence if hit by his group’s missiles.

A 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah killed about 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and around 160 Israelis mostly soldiers before ending in a United Nations-brokered cease-fire.

The Israel-Lebanon border has remained mostly quiet since the 2006 war but there have been sporadic outbursts of violence.