The leader of Hezbollah has broken his silence on the Israel-Hamas war, warning his militia is undeterred by US warnings to stay out of the conflict – and threatened further escalation of the conflict.

The Lebanese militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke today at 1pm GMT – the first time since the war broke out – stoking fears the conflict could become a regional one across the Middle East. He warned the US his fighters are “well prepared” to deal with warships it has placed in the nearby eastern Mediterranean and stated Hezbollah is “not threatened” by the ships. “We even have weapons to deal with them,” he added.

He said: “In the last few years, it has been very hard for Palestinian people, particularly with this. very right wing government… There are thousands of Palestinians in the prison of Israel, some of them they spent most of their lives in this prison, and this and this is because of the right wing government with their stupid minister. Their human rights are very bad…This radical government is just killing our people daily basis.

“The politics of the enemy was just persecution… They need to open all these human cases, and they need to open the case of Palestine to the whole world and they have to open it from the beginning with the first case in the world. The operation, the biggest, greatest operation happened on October 7, and the rest of the movement continued. This operation, this great operation, this sacred operation was 100% Palestinian. There was no any negative side of this operation and they couldn’t do any other way.”

He went on to deny any involvement of Hezbollah in the October 7 attack, stating: “This glorious, blessed large scale operation a hundred per cent Palestinian in terms of decision and execution.” He add that “Palestinians had kept it secret” even from fellow factions and from the axis of resistance, he added.

“The Palestinians had kept it secret” even from fellow palestinian factions and from the axis of resistance, he added.It comes as the latest list of nationals to leave Gaza today – published by the Palestinian border authority – includes 92 people described as British citizens, out of a total of 127 people named under the UK section of the list. Around 200 Britons in Gaza have so far registered with the authorities, and along with their dependents the total number the UK is trying to secure passage for is thought to be in the low hundreds.