Hezbollah's attack shows Israel losing its deterrent power, Iran says

Israel has lost its power to deter attacks and the strategic balance in the region has shifted against it, Iran said after attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early yesterday, as Israel’s military said it had struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than ten months of border warfare.

“Despite the comprehensive support of states like the United States, Israel could not predict the time and place of a limited and managed response by the resistance. Israel has lost its deterrence power,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani wrote on X.

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Kanaani added that Israel “now has to defend itself within its occupied territories” and that “strategic balances have undergone fundamental changes” to the detriment of Israel.

“Israel may be able to hide, distort or censor some facts related to Hezbollah’s Arbaeen operation, but it knows very well that the existing facts will not change,” he added.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s strikes, a reprisal for the assassination of senior commander Fuad Shukr last month, had been completed “as planned”.With three deaths confirmed in Lebanon and one in Israel after Sunday’s exchanges, both sides indicated they were happy to avoid further escalation for now, but warned that there could be more strikes to come.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged daily shelling since 8 October 2023, one day after the outbreak of the devastating war on Gaza.