Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah conceded on Thursday that the terror group had suffered a “major and unprecedented” blow this week when thousands of its communications devices suddenly exploded, but vowed that the Lebanon-based terror organization would recover and not lay off its attacks on Israel after months of cross-border fire.

In a televised public address, Nasrallah blamed Israel for the pager and walkie-talkie attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday, which he said constituted “an unprecedented massacre.”

“There is no doubt that we have been subjected to a major security and military blow that is unprecedented in the history of the resistance and unprecedented in the history of Lebanon,” Nasrallah said in his address, filmed at an undisclosed location.

“This type of killing, targeting and crime may be unprecedented in the world,” he said, appearing in front of a featureless red background in his customary black turban.

The attacks “crossed all red lines”, he said. “The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals,” he said, adding the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war.”

The first round of attacks took place on Tuesday when at least 12 people were killed and thousands injured as pagers held by Hezbollah members across Lebanon exploded in what appeared to be a widescale, coordinated attack. A fresh wave of explosions ripped across Lebanon on Wednesday, appearing to target mainly handheld radios used by Hezbollah members, killing at least 25 people and injuring at least 450, according to Lebanese officials.

An Israeli report Wednesday said Jerusalem believes the death toll to be higher than reported, with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit hit hard by the attacks.

Claiming that the attacks had been meant to kill thousands, Nasrallah asserted that “the Israeli effort has largely been thwarted.”

He added that the group would probe how the attacks had happened.

Videos posted to social media showed Israeli fighter jets flying low over Beirut and breaking the sound barrier as Nasrallah spoke from an undisclosed location.

Fears have risen that 11 months of exchanges of fire between the two sides could escalate into an all-out war, particularly after this week’s device bombings. Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to Israeli officials. Israel Defense Forces chief Herzi Halevi held an assessment and approved battle plans for the northern front on Thursday, a short while before Nasrallah’s speech began.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah actually hoped IDF troops would enter southern Lebanon because “what they see as a threat we see as an opportunity.”

He said Hezbollah was using all means to seek out Israeli soldiers and tanks, and this task would be easier “if they come out toward us. Welcome.”

Nasrallah also derided an idea recently put forward by IDF Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin of creating a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, calling the commander an “imbecile.”

“We will not fall, and we will come out stronger. We are preparing to face even worse attacks,” Nasrallah said.

In terms of retaliation, he vowed, “There will be a just punishment. I will not say when, where or how. You will know when the time comes.”

“On Tuesday, Israel intended to kill 4,000 people in one minute by detonating the pagers. Many of them were civilians,” Nasrallah said, though the attacks appeared to have hit only devices used by Hezbollah operatives. “The following day, 1,000 more in one minute. In two minutes, Israel intended to kill 5,000.”

“We have suffered a heavy blow. This is war, this is conflict. We know the enemy, not only Israel, but also the US and NATO, has technological superiority,” he said.

Lebanese first responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded in an attack blamed on Israel targeting Hezbollah, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 17, 2024. (AP Photo)

The Shiite terror leader also referenced the upcoming anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel. “Shortly, we will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the blessed Al-Aqsa flood operation,” he said.

“There is no doubt that Hezbollah, since it joined the fight, has registered impressive achievements in the north of Israel,” he said, claiming that the “criminal” attacks against Hezbollah’s portable devices were conducted by Israel to cover up its incapacity to achieve a military breakthrough against Hezbollah in the north, where it is “embroiled in a war of attrition.”

“We say to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant and the Israeli people: We will not stop our attacks as long as the enemy continues its war in Gaza.”

Nasrallah specifically vowed that the terror group would prevent Israel from realizing its recently added war objective of returning Israeli citizens displaced from northern communities near the Lebanon border to their homes.

“The goal of the resistance is to prevent the enemy from realizing its goals. Its latest objective is to return settlers to their homes in the north of occupied Palestine. Let me tell the Israeli government, the Israeli army and the Israeli people: You will not manage. I tell Prime Minister Netanyahu: You can do what you want, you will not manage,” he said.

“The only solution is to halt the aggression against the people of Gaza. No military escalation, no killings, no total war will return your settlers to the border area. You know it.”

IDF tanks seen on top of a truck in traffic, on their way to the northern border with Lebanon, September 18, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Hezbollah’s backers in Tehran also vowed revenge for the device explosions, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami telling Nasrallah on Thursday that Israel would face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance,” according to Iranian state media.

“Such terrorist acts are undoubtedly the result of the Zionist regime’s despair and successive failures. This will soon be met with a crushing response from the axis of resistance and we will witness the destruction of this bloodthirsty and criminal regime,” Salami said in his message to Nasrallah.

The axis of resistance refers to Iran’s proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah, along with Yemen’s Houthis, and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces.

Iran’s envoy to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those wounded in Tuesday’s explosions, suffering injuries to the hand and the face and reportedly losing an eye.

A man places a poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah near bouquets of flowers in front of the Lebanese Embassy in Tehran, Iran, September 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

So far, the skirmishes on the northern border with Lebanon have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 478 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 79 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.