Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news briefing following the talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kiev, Ukraine August 19, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
August 27, 2019
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to “calm down” after he said his movement was preparing a response to the crash of two Israeli drones in a Beirut suburb.
“I heard what Nasrallah said. I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down. He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies,” Netanyahu said in a speech.
In a speech on Sunday, Nasrallah, whose Iran-backed movement fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, accused Israel of carrying out a suicide drone attack earlier that day.
“I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard (on high alert). Wait for us one, two, three, four days,” Nasrallah said.
One drone fell and a second exploded near the ground and caused some damage to Hezbollah’s media center in the southern suburbs of the capital which it dominates. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the incident.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch and Alison Williams)
