BEIRUT/CAIRO/GAZA: Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Israeli army made statements suggesting the two avowed enemies wanted to avoid risking the further spread of war beyond the Gaza Strip after a drone strike killed a Palestinian Hamas deputy leader in Beirut.
In a speech in Beirut on Wednesday (Jan 3), Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his powerful Iran-backed Shi'ite militia "cannot be silent" following the killing of Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday.
Nasrallah said his heavily armed forces would fight to the finish if Israel chose to extend the war to Lebanon, but he made no concrete threats to act against Israel in support of Hamas, Hezbollah's ally also backed by Iran.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied assassinating Arouri but has promised to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, following the group's Oct 7 cross-border assault in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 abducted.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, when asked what Israel was doing to prepare for a potential Hezbollah response, told a reporter: "I won't respond to what you just mentioned. We are focused on the fight against Hamas."
White House spokesperson John Kirby, asked about Nasrallah's speech, told reporters: "We haven't seen Hezbollah jump in with both feet to come to Hamas' aid and assistance."
Arouri's killing was a further sign of the potential the nearly three-month-old war might spread well beyond Gaza, drawing in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Hezbollah forces on the Lebanon-Israel border and Red Sea shipping lanes.
Arouri, 57, who lived in Beirut, was the first senior Hamas political leader to be assassinated outside Palestinian territories since Israel began its offensive against the Palestinian militant group following the Oct 7 assault.