WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed Wednesday the group would retaliate after the death of senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri.

“The assassination of Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri is a dangerous crime that will not remain unanswered or unpunished,” Nasrallah said in televised remarks.

Arouri, a deputy leader of Hamas and an architect of the group’s deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, was killed — along with six others — in a drone strike in southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold where he had been living in exile.

Arouri is the most senior Hamas official killed since Israel went to war with the group nearly three months ago.

While he was a high-priority target for the Jewish state, Israel has not claimed responsibility for the killing.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Arouri as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” offering $5 million for information about him.

“Arouri was a noted, designated, global terrorist, and if he is in fact dead, nobody should be shedding a tear over his loss,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing Wednesday.

Nasrallah threatened an escalation as fighting rages in Gaza but stopped short of declaring war on Israel.

“We are not scared of the war, we are not hesitant,” Nasrallah said, noting that if there were a war in Lebanon, there would be “no limitations and no restrictions” to his group’s fighting.

“Whoever thinks of the war with us will regret it,” Nasrallah concluded, drawing loud cheers from the audience.

The White House said they haven’t seen any indication that Hezbollah would join the war against Israel at this time.

“We are going to judge actions and not words. We haven’t seen Hezbollah jump in with both feet to come to Hamas’ aid and assistance,” Kirby said.

He added that the U.S. did not want to see the war between Israel and Hamas widen in the region.