[Al Arabiya Latest] Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Tuesday that his militant party would bomb Israel's infrastructure, including its airports and refineries, if the Jewish state attacks Lebanon."I say to the Israelis: if you attack Beirut's Rafiq Hariri airport we will attack Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv," he said in comments transmitted via video link to thousands of supporters massed in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"I declare to you today that I accept this challenge," Nasrallah said in a defiant speech commemorating the assassination of three Hezbollah leaders.
"If you hit our ports, we will bomb your ports, and if you hit our oil refineries, we will bomb your oil refineries."
"If you destroy one building in the southern suburbs we will destroy several of yours," he added.
His comments came amid an escalating war of words between Israel and Hezbollah that has raised concerns of a renewed conflict in the region that could draw in other regional players such as Syria and Iran.
Nasrallah, whose party fought a devastating war with the Jewish state in 2006, accused Israel of engaging in a psychological war aimed at sowing fear among the Lebanese.
He said his party was not seeking a new conflict but stood ready to respond to any Israeli attack.
"The only language Israel understands is that of threats," he said.
Hezbollah fought against Israel in a 34-day war in 2006 after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died.
Israel pounded Beirut's southern suburbs as well as mainly Shiiite southern Lebanon where Hezbollah maintains a stronghold and from which Israel withdrew in 2000.
Israeli bombing also hit bridges, roads, airport runways, ports, factories, power and water networks, and military installations, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Nasrallah was speaking at an event marking the second anniversary of the assassination of military commander Imad Moughniyah.
The Shiiite group has blamed Israel for the 2008 bombing that killed him in Damascus, and has vowed revenge. Israel has denied involvment, and said that it has since foiled several Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israelis abroad.