Hezbollah: Rockets Can Reach All Israel

Lebanese Hezbollah women hold model of a Katyusha rockets launchers in front of a portrait of Hezbollah's former Secretary-General Abbas Musawi, who was killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack in southern Lebanon in 1992, during a rally in Saksakkiyeh village, southern Lebanon, Sunday July 22, 2007. Hezbollah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and U.N. troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari) (Mohammed Zaatari - AP)

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Monday his group possesses an arsenal of rockets that can reach all of Israel, including Tel Aviv.

"We could absolutely reach any corner and any point in occupied Palestine," Nasrallah said in an interview aired by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.

Celebratory gunshots and fireworks erupted in Beirut's southern suburbs for several minutes as the interview began and after it ended.

Nasrallah said last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah did not succeed in diminishing his group's military capabilities. Repeating earlier claims, the Hezbollah leader said his group could already have fired at Tel Aviv last summer during the conflict, but had avoided doing so.

"In July and August 2006, there wasn't a place in occupied Palestine that the rockets of the resistance could not reach, be it Tel Aviv or other cities," he said, describing Israel and the Hezbollah guerrillas in terms usually used by the group.

"We could absolutely do that now," he added.

In Israel, senior military officials said that Hezbollah is not capable of striking all parts of Israel, but its missiles can reach the northern Tel Aviv area, which is about 60 miles south of the border with Lebanon.

Although Hezbollah has succeeded in restoring much of its arsenal since the end of the war last year, it does not have the same military might that it had at the start of the fighting, the officials said on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Hezbollah's rearmament "is a direct and grave violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701," which ended last year's war.

"The international community must hold accountable those governments, namely Syria and Iran, who by supplying weapons to Hezbollah are deliberately trying to undermine the United Nations, the Lebanese government and peace and stability in the region," he said.

Nasrallah has previously said his group increased its stock of missiles since the war ended, despite attempts to keep arms from being smuggled into southern Lebanon.

In a speech in October, he said the guerrillas had 33,000 rockets _ up from the 22,000 he said they had on Sept. 22.