Hezbollah chief says group must retaliate for suspected Israeli strike in Beirut

In the south, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster, while still being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.

Palestinian demonstrators wave Hamas and their national flags during a protest against the killing of top Hamas official Saleh Arouri in Beirut (Majdi Mohammed/AP)

The leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah said on Friday that his group must retaliate after a presumed Israeli strike hit a Beirut neighbourhood this week, killing a senior Hamas official, or else all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack.

Hassan Nasrallah 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.