‘To defend holy land’: Hezbollah airs audio recording from slain leader Hassan Nasrallah after drone strikes in Israel

Iran-back militant group Hezbollah aired an audio recording of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday. The audio was released just over two weeks after an Israeli air strike killed him in southern Beirut.

In the audio clip, Nasrallah was heard saying, “We count on you... to defend your people, your families, your nation, your values and your dignity, and to defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable people.”

Hezbollah claimed that the recording was made as Nasrallah addressed the Iran-backed group's fighters during a military manoeuvre.

Nasrallah, a key Hezbollah leader, was killed on September 27.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is currently at war with Israel. The group said its forces clashed several times with Israeli troops who tried to "infiltrate" villages along the border.

Hezbollah said late Sunday that it launched "a squadron of attack drones" at a military training base in Binyamina, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the major city of Haifa. Four Israel Defence Forces soldiers were killed as "UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drones] launched by Hezbollah" hit an army base.

The strike was in response to Israeli attacks, including air strikes on Thursday that Lebanon's health ministry said killed at least 22 people in central Beirut, news agency AFP reported.

Before the drone strike, it had said it launched a salvo of rockets at a "base in southern Haifa".  Hezbollah later aired an audio recording of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on fighters to "defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable people".

Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year in support of Hamas militants in Gaza, but its strikes have reached further into the country since late September, when the Israel-Hezbollah war escalated.

Meanwhile, Israel's recent strikes increasingly focused on areas beyond Hezbollah's traditional strongholds in southern Beirut, and Lebanon's south and east. Israel said its air force hit "Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities" and other targets, while on the ground its soldiers "eliminated dozens" of fighters.

According to Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA), Israeli forces have "escalated their attacks" on southern Lebanon with "successive air strikes" pounding several border villages.

(With inputs from agencies)