BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s chief said Tuesday his group and Iran were “obliged to respond” to Israel “whatever the consequences” after the killings last week of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The twin killings have sent Middle East tensions skyrocketing, amid fears of a regional conflict and all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which have been trading daily cross-border fire since Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Iran “finds itself obliged to respond, and the enemy is waiting in a great state of dread”, Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding his group was also “obliged to respond”.

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Hezbollah will retaliate “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed groups in the region, “whatever the consequences,” he added.

An Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Hezbollah’s top military commander Shukr last Tuesday.

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Early Wednesday, Hamas’s political chief Haniyeh was killed in an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel, which has not commented directly on the killing.

“Our response is coming,” Nasrallah said in an address to mark a week since Shukr’s killing, adding it would be “strong and effective”.

“Israel’s waiting for a week is part of the punishment, part of the response, part of the battle,” he said, adding: “It is Israel who chose escalation… and who attacked Iran.”