Future war would be on Israeli territory

Reuters, Lebanese Hezbollah said on Thursday that any future conflict between the Shi'ite group and Israel could take place inside Israeli territory, as tensions rise between the arch foes.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, also said in a speech televised live that the group was dismantling all its military positions along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, and this area would now be patrolled just by the Lebanese army.

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Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran and Damascus, has been fighting for years in Syria's conflict against an array of rebels and Sunni Islamist fighters.

The Syrian conflict has also been an arena where tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have ramped up. Recent Israeli air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Syria appeared to mark a more assertive stance towards the group.

The two sides last fought a war in 2006.

Nasrallah played down the prospects of another imminent conflict, but warned it could take place on Israeli territory, after saying earlier this year that Hezbollah's rockets could hit targets anywhere inside the country.

Israel "is scared and worried of any future confrontation ... and knows that it could be inside the occupied Palestinian territories," Nasrallah said. "There will be no place that is out of reach of the rockets of the resistance or the boots of the resistance fighters."

Since the 2006 war, Nasrallah has often used his speeches to highlight the group's military capabilities in any potential future conflict with Israel, in what experts see as a calculated policy of deterrence.