JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning Iran and its Lebanese Shiite proxy, the militant Hezbollah group, that Israel “knows how to defend itself and how to pay back its enemies.”
Netanyahu’s remarks on Tuesday come in response to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s threats to retaliate against an Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed two Hezbollah members.
Netanyahu says he heard the threats. He says: “I suggest that Nasrallah relax.”
He also sent a message to Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom Israel accuses of masterminding a drone attack from Syria that it thwarted with its airstrike.
Netanyahu says: “Be careful with your words and even more so be careful with your actions.”
Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. The Israel-Lebanese border has been mostly calm since then.