Iran-allied Hezbollah on Friday threatened to escalate its attacks on Israel in response to the killing of ten Lebanese civilians in Israeli attacks this week, while Israel vowed to push Hezbollah away from the border if diplomacy fails.

In a televised speech, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that Israel would pay the price in “blood,” indicating a risk of worsening the ongoing conflict on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October.

Nasrallah accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, saying that it could have avoided killing them. Among the dead were five people from one family, in addition to a senior leader in the party’s Radwan Force, which is the elite force in the Shiite armed group.

He added, "The answer to the massacre must be to continue the resistance work on the front and escalate the resistance work on the front... Our women and children who were killed these days in Nabatieh, Al-Sawwanah, and other villages in the south, the enemy will pay the price for shedding their blood."< /p>

He said in reference to Israel, “The enemy’s goal, by killing civilians, is to pressure the resistance to stop... We tell him this increases our presence, strength, ignition, anger, effectiveness, and expansion, and he must expect that and wait for that.”

Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with the Israeli army for more than four months in support of the Palestinian Hamas movement, which carried out an attack on Israel on October 7, which was met with an Israeli land, air and sea attack on Gaza.

The violence resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, in addition to about ten Israeli soldiers and five Israeli civilians, in addition to the displacement of tens of thousands from both sides.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said at the Munich Security Conference that Hezbollah is merely a proxy for Iran to maneuver as it sees fit, and that Israel will not allow the unrest in the north to continue indefinitely.

He said, “If a diplomatic solution is not reached, Israel will be forced to move in order to remove Hezbollah from the border and return our residents to their homes,” referring to about 70,000 displaced Israelis, adding, “In such a case, Lebanon will also pay a price.” Expensive... Our attack will destroy Lebanon. Put pressure on Hezbollah and Iran.”

France submitted a written proposal to Beirut and Israel aimed at ending hostilities and settling the border dispute between the two sides, but there are few indications that these efforts will bear fruit in the near term.

Speaking in Munich earlier on Friday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for calm, but said attacks on civilians must end.

He continued, "Just two days ago, a family in southern Lebanon consisting of seven members, including children and women, was targeted. Killing and targeting innocent children, women, and the elderly is a crime against humanity."