JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hit large  ammonia gas tanks in northern Israel that he said would wreak damage and casualties equal to a nuclear attack.

Nasrallah threatened to hit the targets in Haifa in a future attack on Israel, during a speech in Beirut.

“This would be exactly as a nuclear bomb, and we can say that Lebanon today has a nuclear bomb, seeing as any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating a nuclear bomb effect,” he said.

Israel’s Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabbai later told Israeli media that he had ordered that the ammonia storage facility be moved to the Negev desert in Israel’s south .

Nasrallah added that Hezbollah’s military might is currently preventing attacks by Israel at bay. He said Israel would not attack unless it knew it could win and do it in a short amount of time.

He also accused Israel of planning to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying those plans have failed.

He condemned Arab countries that have or are working toward normalizing relations with Israel.

“Do you accept a friend occupying Sunni land in Palestine? Can you become friends with an entity that has committed the most horrible massacres against the Sunni community?” he said. “You are free to consider Iran an enemy, but how can you consider Israel a friend and ally? This issue must be confronted in a serious manner.”

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