Hamas reveals 'red line' for Hezbollah to enter the war

A senior spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas says Hezbollah will only become more deeply involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict if the movement is completely eliminated in Gaza.

Speaking on November 13, Hamas representative in Beirut, Ahmed Abdul Hadi, said Hezbollah was not yet ready to join the war and would only escalate its anti-Israel campaigns in the event of a complete defeat for Hamas.

“That time has not come yet. The red line for Hezbollah is when the resistance is completely destroyed in Gaza,” Mr. Hadi said.

Although the Israeli military has clashed with Hezbollah members along the Israel-Lebanon border several times in recent weeks, the group’s second-in-command, Naim Qassem, said the clashes were merely “aimed at relieving pressure on Gaza.” Other senior figures have declined to specify what Hezbollah’s “red lines” for involvement might be, saying Hezbollah’s response would depend on Israel’s actions.

However, speaking on November 11, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group was stepping up military activities, while stepping up campaigns along the front with Israel.

“The number of operations, the scale and the number of targets, as well as the types of weapons, have increased,” Mr. Nasrallah was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The Israeli military has warned that Hezbollah would be making a grave mistake if it stepped up attacks on Israeli forces. Israel claims to have killed around 80 members of the Islamist movement in recent clashes.

Over the weekend, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah was dragging Lebanon into a possible war. Gallant warned that if mistakes were made, the Lebanese citizens would pay the price first.

Violence erupted in the Middle East after Hamas launched a surprise cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. Tel Aviv immediately launched a large-scale campaign to respond to Hamas, focusing air strikes on targets in Gaza for weeks. Israel then escalated the conflict with a ground offensive into the Palestinian territory. According to local officials, the death toll in Israel is 1,200 people and in Gaza more than 11,000.

Hezbollah and Israel have fought two major wars and a series of smaller skirmishes since the 1980s. The Israeli army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon after the 2006 conflict. Hezbollah maintains a sizable presence in southern Lebanon and frequently clashes with Israeli forces patrolling the border.