"This is our nation together. We live in dignity together, and we build its sovereignty together - or Lebanon will have no life if you stand on the other side and try to confront us and eliminate us," its leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech.

Airstrikes come as Hezbollah threatens civil war if Lebanon tries to disarm it; Lebanese PM says threats unacceptable, Beirut will do whatever is necessary for peace and stability

Naim Kassem, leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, said the government should have instead “spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.”