By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – The leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, Hassan Nasrallah, has blamed “flagrant Israeli aggression” for the death of the deputy Hamas leader on Tuesday.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza have been designated as terrorist organizations by Israel and most of its allies, with both seeking the destruction of the Jewish nation.
Speaking in Beirut, Nasrallah said Tuesday’s killing of Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago, showed Israel’s “flagrant aggression.”
He said “the real objective” of Israel is driving all the Palestinians out of their territories. “The objective is quite clear,” he stressed. Nasrallah pointed to the “people forced to leave their homes in Gaza and the West Bank, to some extent, and southern Lebanon”
He spoke as the chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, vowed Wednesday that the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, “no matter where they are.”
Barnea made the pledge following the killing of Arouri in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut.
Israel has refused to comment on reports that it carried out the killing, but Barnea’s comments appeared to be the strongest indication yet that it was behind the blast.
MUNICH MASSACRE
Barnea made a comparison to the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre when Mossad agents tracked down and killed a string of Palestinian militants involved in abducting and killing Israeli athletes at that year’s Olympic games.
The Hamas massacre on October 7 of some 1,200 people, including raped women and children, was the worst recorded atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah.
Israel was on high alert Wednesday for an escalation with Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia after the strike in the Lebanese capital killed Arouri.
“We have seen the great dangers … but at the same time, we have seen the resistance and the defiance … the refusal to surrender of Gaza,” Nasrallah said.
Nasrallah seemed to prepare his supporters for battle when he accused Israel of “starving people and inflicting the largest war of genocide during this century” against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Hezbollah leader Nasrallah’s speech in Beirut was also focused on the late Iranian commander Qassem Suleimani. The fourth anniversary of his assassination by U.S. forces was marked by fatal explosions at a memorial event in central Iran earlier on Wednesday that killed scores of people.
Nasrallah said Suleimani was a driving force in “uniting” various forces against Israel and Western support for Israel in “Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries”.
SUPPORTING HAMAS
Hezbollah has made clear it supports Hamas and is backed by Iran in its aggressive opposition to Israel.
With tensions rising, the United Nations peacekeeping force Unifil in Lebanon expressed “deep concern” about a potential escalation of violence in the region.
Unifil warned that a broader armed conflict would have “devastating consequences” for both Israel and Lebanon and urged all parties to show restraint
The statement came after elsewhere, in Gaza, five people were reportedly killed in an attack on the Palestinian Red Crescent building in Khan Younis as Israel urged people to evacuate the city.
Tuesday’s strike came as the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claimed more than 22,000 people were killed in the territory since Israel started its retaliatory campaign.
Israel said its actions were in response to the massacres on October 7, referred to by Israelis as “Black Sabbath.”
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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