Lebanon’s Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after its drones crashed on Beirut’s suburbs, but added that it was not yet a new war between the old enemies.

The Iran-backed movement’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem told the media including Reuters that it was preparing a calculated strike in response to the drone attacks.

“I rule out that the atmosphere is one of war, it is one of a response to an attack. Everything will be decided at its time.” Sheikh Qassem told Russia’s RT Arabic channel on Tuesday night.

Reponding to questions about the origin or target of the drones, Qassem did not give details, saying that Hezbollah deemed it an attack that it must respond to so that Israel does not upset the status quo and set its own terms.

“We want the strike to be a surprise and so there is no interest in diving into the details. The coming days will reveal this,” he added. 

The Israeli government has however not claimed responsibility for the two drones which crashed in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut at the weekend, with one of them exploding.

The country’s officials also declined to comment when asked if Israel was responsible for the drones, which Hezbollah says were loaded with explosives.