Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, has taunted Israel saying his group possessed the remains of its soldiers left on the battlefield in Lebanon after the 2006 war.
Nasrallah made his comments on Saturday in his first public appearance in over a year, taking part in the annual Shia religious ceremony of Ashura in Beirut.
In a speech transmitted to the crowd on a huge screen, he said: "Oh Zionists your... your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields."
He said Hezbollah had the "heads of your [Israel's] soldiers, we have hands, we have legs".
Nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died during the 34-day war.
"There is even a near-complete body, a half or three-quarters of a body, from head, to chest to the torso," said Nasrallah.
'Ready for new war'
Speaking about the 2006 war, he claimed Hezbollah had forced the Israeli army to beat a retreat and warned that his group was ready for a new conflict.
"If Israel launches a new war against Lebanon, we promise them a war that will change the face of the entire region," he said.
In his speech, Nasrallah called on Arab governments to confront the "satanic visions" for the Middle East imagined by George Bush, the US president.
He said Bush's plans he said would only serve the interests of the US and Israel, which he termed a "cancerous entity".
"Bush wants to convince our rulers and people that Iran is the enemy, that Iran poses a danger and a threat, and that Israel is a brother, a beloved friend and neighbor for whom we must extend our hand in peace," Nasrallah said.
"Is there in history a greater forgery, deceit and hypocrisy?"
Political tension
Nasrallah's public appearance comes amid heightened tension in Lebanon, which has been without a president for nearly two months because of a crisis between the Western-backed parliamentary majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
What now for Lebanon?
Addressing his supporters, Nasrallah reiterated that Hezbollah supported an Arab League plan to resolve the crisis.
The plan envisages General Michel Suleiman, the army chief, in place as president, a national unity government in which no one party has veto power and the adoption of a new electoral law.
But the Hezbollah leader criticized Arab leaders who have been pushing the plan, saying they should refrain from giving lessons about democracy.
"I find it strange that Arab leaders speak about ... democracy when their own regimes know nothing about it," he said.
Shia ceremony
Nasrallah was speaking after his followers converged on Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion to mark the climax of Ashura.
Hezbollah supporters carrying red, yellow and black banners with the slogan "We will not be humiliated" marched in procession, blocking suburban roads, chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel".
The Shia leader had earlier walked among the Ashura procession, flanked by dozens of black-clad security men, waving to the crowds.
His last public appearance was at a massive "victory" rally in September 2006, in the wake of the war against Israel during which he went into hiding.
PHOTO CAPTION
Hezbollah supporters take part in a mass religious procession attended by the Shiite Muslim group's chief Hassan Nassrallah on the occasion of Ashura in the southern suburbs of Beirut. [AFP]
Al-Jazeera