Hezbollah leader says his group must retaliate for suspected Israeli strike in Beirut

By BASSEM MROUE, WAFAA SHURAFA and NAJIB JOBAIN
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah says his group must retaliate after a presumed Israeli strike hit a Beirut neighborhood this week, killing a senior Hamas official. Without a response, Hassan Nasrallah said, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack. He appeared to be making the case for a response to the Lebanese public, even at the risk of escalating the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. But he gave no indication of how or when the militants would act. The strike that killed Hamas’ deputy political leader threatened months of efforts by the United States to prevent the war in Gaza from spiraling into a regional conflict.