Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Sunday that the Lebanese resistance movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against Israel.

"We have entered a new phase, namely an open reckoning" with Israel, Qassem said at the funeral ceremony of a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike on Friday, Middle East Eye reported. 

"Threats will not stop us… We are ready to face all military possibilities," he said, in the first comments from a senior Hezbollah official since the strike on Beirut's southern suburbs killed Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force.

Dozens of people including at least 16 Hezbollah members were killed in the strike. 

Qassem said Hezbollah attacks on Israeli military production facilities and an air base near northern Israel's Haifa on Sunday were part of the new "open reckoning".

He repeated that only a ceasefire in Gaza would put a stop to Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks, warning that "the Israeli military solution increases the dilemma for Israel and the residents of the north" of Israel.