People walk past destroyed vehicles and debris at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that killed seven people on 1 April in Beirut, Lebanon. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, launched missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the US-Israeli war on Iran.

• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem with an “extraordinarily heavy price” for escalating rocket attacks during Jewish Passover holidays.
• The warning came after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel.
• Katz reiterated Israel’s goals to clear Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, maintain security control in the Litani area, and dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities across Lebanon.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Thursday warned that Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem would pay an “extraordinarily heavy price” for escalating attacks during the ongoing Jewish holidays.

“I have a clear message for Naim Qassem... you and your associates will pay an extraordinarily heavy price for the intensified rocket fire directed at Israeli citizens as they gathered to celebrate Passover Seder,” Katz said in a video statement.

“You will be consigned to the depths of hell alongside Nasrallah, Khamenei, Sinwar and the other fallen figures of the axis of evil,” he said, referring to the former leaders of Hezbollah, Iran, and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, who have been assassinated by Israel over the past two and a half years.

“The Hezbollah terrorist organisation you now lead, and its supporters in Lebanon, will bear the full and severe consequences,” Katz added.

His warning followed claims by Hezbollah that it had carried out a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel late on Wednesday and early on Thursday, as Israeli Jews began marking the Passover holidays.

Katz also reiterated that Israeli forces “will clear Hezbollah and its supporters from southern Lebanon, maintain Israeli security control throughout the Litani area, and dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities across Lebanon.”

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Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive.