Hezbollah Confirms Killing Of Chief Nasrallah As Iran Vows Revenge (Worthy News Focus)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Iran-backed Hezbollah has confirmed its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, but Tehran vowed revenge.
The group said in a statement: “His eminence, the master of resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his lord [Allah], who is pleased with him as a great martyr.”
Iran was quick to threaten more attacks against Israel through its proxies following the killing of Nadrallah, who led Hezbollah for some 32 years. “By the grace and power of Allah, the blows struck by the Resistance Front on the worn-out, deteriorating body of the Zionist regime will become even more crushing,” said Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about Hezbollah chief Nasrallah, referring to Israel.
“The foul-natured Zionist regime has not become victorious by carrying out this atrocity,” he added.
His statement came as a projectile fired from Lebanon crashed in the West Bank, also known as Judaea and Samaria, on Saturday, sparking fires, the Israeli military said.
Later, air raid sirens sounded on the outskirts of Jerusalem and the Israel-controlled West Bank, also known as Judaea and Samaria, Israeli sources added.
The Israeli military said they were triggered by “a launch from Lebanon toward Israeli territory.”
TEL AVIV TARGETED
Separately, air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, and loud bangs were heard over the weekend after a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted, the Israeli military said.
The Houthis said the attack was timed to coincide with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu from the United Nations in New York following the killing of Nasrallah.
“The resistance will not be broken, and the Jihadist spirit of the Mujahideen brothers in Lebanon and on all fronts of support will grow stronger and bigger,” the Houthis warned.
Lebanon declared three days of mourning following Nasrallah’s death. Spontaneous marches of mourners beating their chests while hoisting Hezbollah’s flags happened in various neighborhoods in Beirut during the day, witnesses said.
Yet the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief, Herzl Halevi, earlier defended the killing of Nasrallah and other leaders, saying: “Whoever threatens the state of Israel, we’ll know how to get to him: in the north, in the south, and in more distant places.”
As fighting continued, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said more than 200,000 people have been displaced by ongoing Israeli air strikes inside Lebanon. Gradi added that some 50,000 Lebanese and Syrian people living there have crossed into Syria.
The U.N. official did not mention the estimated 60,000 Israelis who were displaced in northern Israel by Hezbollah attacks.
UN CONCERNED
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of the events in Beirut in the last 24 hours”.
He stressed that “This cycle of violence must stop now. All sides must step back from the brink.”
Yet the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief, Herzl Halevi, earlier defended the killing of Nasrallah and other leaders, saying: “Whoever threatens the state of Israel, we’ll know how to get to him: in the north, in the south, and in more distant places.”
However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Lebanese people are the new target of “Israel’s policy of genocide, occupation and invasion,” charges Israel vehemently denied.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fight is against Hezbollah, not the people of Lebanon.
Erdoğan, who has been highly critical of Israel’s ongoing war against Hezbollah’s ally Hamas in Gaza, said children were among Lebanese civilians who have been “murdered” by “brutal” Israeli strikes conducted on Lebanon this week.
Israel has accused Hezbollah and its ally Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians.