Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s threats on Karish gas drilling rig and prevent the production and export of gas from Israel’s reservoirs if Lebanon’s demands regarding the latter’s marine border with Israel constitute a significant escalation in Hezbollah’s aggressive rhetoric and may lead to another miscalculation which will ignite a war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In a smug TV interview for the 40th anniversary of Hezbollah’s foundation Nasrallah even said that the rocket arsenal in the hands of the organization can hit any target in Israel and projected, as he usually does that the end of the Zionist state is near. Simultaneously, the commander of IRGC threatened that tens of thousands of Hezbollah’s missiles are aimed at Israel and if the latter would make a single mistake, they will be launched at it.

Even though the Israeli public has become accustomed to Nasrallah’s litigious statements, his and Hezbollah’s threats on Karish clearly deviate from and escalate the “response formula” Hezbollah has been trying to enforce on Israel within the framework of mutual deterrence and reflect Nasrallah’s confidence in Hezbollah’s acquired military power.