Israel Strikes South Lebanon Border Area | VOA News

Clashes renewed between Israel and Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made his first speech since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah sought in a widely anticipated speech Friday to portray his extremist group as vigorous defenders of the Hamas militants fighting in Gaza without drawing his own country, Lebanon, into a full-scale war with Israel.

Nasrallah also denied any responsibility for the October 7 massacre of 1,400 people in Israel, describing it as “100 percent Palestinian,” and said he held the United States directly responsible for the resulting war in which thousands of Palestinians have died.

Nasrallah did not announce an intention to enter the war, as some had feared, arguing that through a weekslong exchange of rocket and artillery fire with Israel, Hezbollah had already entered the war. He said a further escalation on the Lebanese front was a realistic possibility, but analysts noted that he described no concrete steps Hezbollah would take.