Hezbollah vows to ramp up border attacks against Israel

Militants make declaration after senior commander was killed in airstrike

- BASSEM MROUE

People carry the coffin of Hezbollah senior commander Taleb Sami Abdullah during his funeral procession in Beirut on Wednesday. He was killed Tuesday by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah vowed Wednesday to intensify its attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border to avenge the killing of its most senior military commander by Israel since the latest round of violence began eight months ago.

“Our response after the martyrdom of Abu Taleb will be to intensify our operations in severity, strength, quantity and quality,” senior Hezbollah official Hachem Saffieddine said during a funeral ceremony for Taleb Sami Abdullah. “Let the enemy wait for us in the battlefield.”

Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel, further escalating tensions as the fate of an internationally backed plan for a truce in Gaza hung in the balance.