Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Saturday that his group will beat back any attack from Israel.
Any violations from Israel to the Lebanese territories or the civilians in the south will not pass without any actions from our side, Nasrallah told a rally to mark a major Shiite religious festival of Ashura in southern Beirut.
Nasrallah also said that his group had remains of "a large number of soldiers that the Israeli army had abandoned."
"We have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, we have legs," he said.
Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed several others during a cross-border raid in July 2006, triggering a 34-day-long conflict with Israel which claimed lives of more than 1200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.
The fighting came to an end on Aug. 14 when a UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect. Israel failed to retrieve the two soldiers.
It's the first time for the Shiite militant group Hezbollah' leader to appear before the public since his last show-up at a "victory rally" marking the end of a war between Hezbollah and Israel in September 2006.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station said 1 million people turned out for the event.
The footage showed that Nasrallah, closely surrounded by bodyguards, walked into the rally, who are gathering in southern suburbs of Beirut to observe the Ashura, marking the death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
This year's Ashura came as the country stuck in a serious political crisis over the presidency, which has been vacant since the former president Emile Lahoud ended his term on Nov. 24.
The sharply divided Lebanese parliament has delayed elections of a new president for 12 times without a consensus.
Source:Xinhua
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