Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah claims group has wounded 2,000 Israeli soldiers

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah claimed during a speech on Friday that the group had injured around 2,000 Israeli soldiers in strikes along the Lebanon-Israel border in the last three months.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border fighting since 8 October, a day after Palestinian group Hamas's surprise assault in southern Israel.

The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has gradually escalated into tit-for-tat rocket fire. Hezbollah has lost 129 fighters, according to the group's own figures, while Israel says it has lost nine soldiers.

Nasrallah cited hospitals in northern Israel as well as observations of Hezbollah fighters along the border to deliver the figure, claiming that Israeli officials are concealing their true casualty count.

"Lately they are beginning to talk about the numbers of killed and wounded, but these are not the real numbers. Many experts in [Israel] say that the numbers are three times higher in reality," Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah also gave figures on the number of attacks carried out by Hezbollah, claiming that the Lebanese group has carried out more than 670 operations over the last three months.

He said that all 48 of Israel's surveillance towers along the border had been targeted by Hezbollah attacks, resulting in "hundreds of millions" in financial losses, as well as a loss of surveillance capacity by Israel.

Nasrallah added that due to Hezbollah's activities on the southern border of Lebanon, Israel had been forced to divert resources from its military operation in Gaza. The displacement of tens of thousands of residents from their homes in northern Israel also added a political and economic burden on the Israeli government.

Friday's speech was the second time Nasrallah has addressed his supporters since the Israeli assassination of top Hamas official Salah al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut on 2 January.

Nasrallah once again warned that a response to the assassination would be forthcoming, without specifying when or how the retaliation would take place.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a bloody war in 2006, which saw thousands of Lebanese flee their homes due to a massive aerial bombardment by Israel.

The Lebanese movement has also been engaged in the Syrian civil war, supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime.