Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance
Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance/node/2547246/middle-east
Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance
Hamas is negotiating on behalf of the entire "Axis of Resistance", the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday. (AFP/File)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance
“Hamas is negotiating on its own behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian factions, and also on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance,” Nasrallah said
Nasrallah said that, for Hezbollah, a Gaza ceasefire would be enough to do that
Updated 10 July 2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hamas was conducting Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel on behalf of the entire “Axis of Resistance” and, if a deal was reached, Hezbollah would stop its operations with no need for separate talks.
At the same time, Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah was ready for and did not fear a war and pointed to the ever-larger salvos of rockets and drones the group has fired at Israel as evidence.
The Axis of Resistance is an alliance built up over years of Iranian support against Israel and US influence in the Middle East. It includes the Yemen’s Houthis and Shiite armed groups in Iraq.
“Hamas is negotiating on its own behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian factions, and also on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance. What Hamas accepts, we all accept,” Nasrallah said, speaking in a televised address to mourn the recent killing of a senior Hezbollah commander.
Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets on the border in support of Palestinians after its ally Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that precipitated the war in Gaza.
It has repeatedly labeled its attacks as a “support front” aimed at drawing Israeli military resources away from Gaza and supporting Palestinians.
Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate from the area around the border between the two countries and international observers have warned in recent weeks of the growing risk of a wider conflict.
The US and France have spearheaded diplomatic efforts to try to secure a deal that would prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah expanding.
Nasrallah said that, for Hezbollah, a Gaza ceasefire would be enough to do that.
“If there is a ceasefire in Gaza then our front will also cease fire without discussion, irrespective of any other agreement or mechanisms or negotiations.”
Iran warns of ‘consequences’ of Israeli attacks on Lebanon after Golan strike
Updated 1 min 21 sec ago
TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday warned Israel that any new military “adventures” in Lebanon could lead to “unforeseen consequences,” following a deadly rocket strike in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights blamed on Tehran-backed Hezbollah. “Any ignorant action of the Zionist regime can lead to the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity and war in the region,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani. He added that Israel will be responsible for “the unforeseen consequences and reactions to such stupid behavior.” Hezbollah, which on Saturday claimed multiple attacks on Israeli military positions following a deadly raid on southern Lebanon, has denied responsibility for the rocket fire that Israeli authorities said killed 12 people including children in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. Kanani accused Israel of pinning the blame on Hezbollah “to divert public opinion and world attention from its massive crimes” in the Gaza Strip, where war has raged since October 7. He added that Israel “does not have the least moral authority to comment” on the deaths in Majdal Shams, on the Golan Heights which the country has seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations. Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Islamic republic has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war but denied any involvement.
UAE airlifts aid to Ethiopia in response to deadly landslides
The landslides caused by heavy rainfall resulted in loss of life and severe damage to property
Updated 28 min 18 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: The UAE has dispatched a plane carrying vital aid to southern Ethiopia in the wake of landslides that killed at least 257 people.
“The UAE relief endeavors aim to provide urgent assistance to those impacted by the natural disaster,” state-run WAM news agency said Saturday.
UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, highlighted that these contributions underline the country's commitment to support impacted communities across the globe.
The landslides caused by heavy rainfall resulted in loss of life and severe damage to property.
The United Nations said the death toll from the landslides has risen to 257 and has warned that the number of victims is expected to soar to 500.
The landslide that struck Ethiopia is the deadliest on record in the country, reports said.
Strike on Israeli Golan Heights kills 11 and threatens to spark a wider war
Hezbollah denies Israel’s claim it is involved in strike that killed at least 11
All-out war with group with far superior firepower to Hamas could prove difficult for Israel
Updated 28 July 2024
AP
TEL AVIV, Israel: A rocket strike Saturday at a soccer field killed at least 11 children and teens, Israeli authorities said, in the deadliest strike on an Israeli target along the country’s northern border since the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began. It raised fears of a broader regional war.
Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah rushed to deny any role. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far.”
The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. He said 20 others were wounded.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli Channel 12. “We are nearing the moment in which we face an all-out war.”
Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.” It is unusual for Hezbollah to deny an attack.
The strike at the soccer field, just before sunset, followed earlier cross-border violence on Saturday, when Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed, without specifying where. Israel’s military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.
Hezbollah said its fighters carried out 10 different attacks using rockets and explosive drones against Israeli military posts, the last of which targeted the army command of the Haramoun Brigade in Maaleh Golani with Katyusha rockets. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it hit the same army post with a short-range Falaq rocket. It said the attacks were in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon.
The office of Netanyahu, who was on a visit to the United States, said he would cut short his trip by several hours, without specifying when he would return. It said he will convene the security Cabinet after arriving.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government called for a harsh response against Hezbollah. But an all-out war with a militant group with far superior firepower to Hamas would be trying for Israel’s military after nearly 10 months of fighting in Gaza.
Footage aired on Israeli Channel 12 showed a large blast in one of the valleys in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed in 1981. Some Druze have Israeli citizenship. Many still have sympathies for Syria and rejected Israeli annexation, but their ties with Israeli society have grown over the years.
Video showed paramedics rushing stretchers off the soccer field toward waiting ambulances.
Ha’il Mahmoud, a resident, told Channel 12 that children were playing soccer when the rocket hit the field. He said a siren was heard seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to take shelter.
Jihan Sfadi, the principal of an elementary school, told Channel 12 that five students were among the dead: “The situation here is very difficult. Parents are crying, people are screaming outside. No one can digest what has happened.”
Israel’s military said its analysis showed that the rocket was launched from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.
The White House National Security Council in a statement said the US “will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority. Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Lebanon’s government, in a statement that didn’t mention Majdal Sham, urged an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Oct. 8, a day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel. In recent weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border has intensified, with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and farther away from the border.
Majdal Shams had not been among border communities ordered to evacuate as tensions rose, Israel’s military said, without saying why. The town doesn’t sit directly on the border with Lebanon.
Officials from countries including the United States and France have visited Lebanon to try to ease the tensions but failed to make progress. Hezbollah has refused to cease firing as long as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues. Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive war in 2006.
Saturday’s violence comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing a ceasefire proposal that would wind down the nearly 10-month war in Gaza and free the roughly 110 hostages who remain captive there. Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 44 have been killed, at least 21 of them soldiers.
UN officials urge ‘maximum restraint’ on Lebanon-Israeli front
Israel blamed the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and vowed to retaliate but Hezbollah denied responsibility
Updated 28 July 2024
Reuters
CAIRO: The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon urged maximum restraint on the Lebanese-Israeli border early on Sunday, after a deadly attack in the area caused tensions to spiral.
A rocket attack on a football ground in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people, including children, on Saturday.
Israel blamed the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and vowed to retaliate but Hezbollah denied responsibility.
