A senior politician in the Lebanese group Hezbollah has said that Israeli air strikes in south Lebanon marked a “new escalation” to which the group was responding with new types of attacks.

Hassan Fadlallah, in a statement sent to Reuters, said the escalation would “not deter the resistance in Lebanon from continuing to defend its country and supporting Gaza”.

Hezbollah was responding to the escalation with new types of attacks, be it “in the nature of the weapons (used) or the targeted sites”, he added.