The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement has stated that ending the conflict in Gaza and ensuring a Hamas victory against Israel were his group’s main objectives.
“Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that his forces would continue their skirmishes with the Israeli military until Hamas achieves victory in Gaza. Nasrallah warned that an attack on Lebanon would be the ‘most foolish mistake’ in Israeli history.
‘What is happening in Gaza today is not just another war; it is a decisive historical battle with consequences that will reshape the future’, Nasrallah said in a televised speech. Hezbollah’s objectives in this battle, he stated, are to ‘stop the aggression’ on Gaza and ensure that Hamas ‘achieves victory’ against Israel.
Hezbollah is ready for any escalation by the Israeli side, he said, warning West Jerusalem that ‘if you contemplate an attack or launch a military operation against Lebanon, you will commit the most foolish mistake in your existence’. Should a wider war break out, he warned the U.S. that ‘you Americans will pay with your ships, your aircraft, and your soldiers’.
Nasrallah added that ‘there will be more actions’ against Israel on multiple fronts in the coming days.
Israeli officials have issued similarly stark threats to Hezbollah too, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising to strike Lebanon with ‘unimaginable strength’ if Nasrallah’s group makes the ‘mistake of its life’ by entering the war.
Speaking in Tel Aviv immediately after Nasrallah’s speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that ‘with regard to Lebanon, with regard to Hezbollah, with regard to Iran – we have been very clear from the outset that we are determined that there not be a second or third front opened in this conflict’”. -RT
Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has declared that any nation at odds with Israel’s response to the atrocities committed by Hamas is on the side of the militant group and that there can be no neutrality in regards to the conflict.
“Nations that have failed to support Israel’s response to the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th are on the side of the militant group in the conflict, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has declared. There can be no neutrality regarding the conflict, a ministry spokesman has inisisted.
Speaking at a virtual media briefing on Friday, Lior Hayat described Israel’s intention to obliterate Hamas as an existential goal. The group’s leadership, he claimed, is planning ‘another October 7th massacre, and another one after that, and another one after that’.
Hayat said Israel had received ‘unprecedented international support’ after the attack, because ‘no one could see those atrocities and not understand what we are dealing with’.
‘I want to send a very clear message to the international community. If you do not condemn Hamas, if you do not [support] Israel’s right to self-defense, you are supporting Hamas’.
There is no middle way. You are either standing with Israel or you are standing with Hamas.
On October 7th, Hamas fighters breached a security wall erected by Israel around Gaza and raided nearby towns and military bases, killing hundreds of civilians and capturing more than 200 hostages. Israel responded by besieging the Palestinian enclave and subjecting it to weeks of intensive bombardments in preparation for a ground incursion.
While the U.S. has pledged its unwavering support for Israel’s actions, many nations have criticized the response as disproportionate. A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Gaza, after it was virtually cut off from critical supplies and amid a massive bombardment.
This week, Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against its military tactics in Gaza. Colombia and Chile have recalled their ambassadors to the Jewish state – a move that Israel claimed made them aligned with Iran in ‘supporting terrorism’. The country has accused Iran, its long-time regional nemesis, of being behind Hamas.
The binary approach that Hayat described resembles the position of the Ukrainian government regarding its own conflict with Russia.
Addressing Israeli MPs last year in an effort to push for the delivery of advanced weapons, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy insisted that Israel can be ‘a mediator between nations, but not between good and evil’.
The U.S. has been attempting to sway neutral nations to join the Ukrainian side since Kiev’s conflict with Russia escalated in February of 2022. However, this effort has been ‘poisoned’ by Washington’s unconditional support for Israel despite mass civilian casualties, prompting some nations to accuse it of hypocrisy.
‘They won’t ever listen to us again’, a senior G7 diplomat told the Financial Times last month in relation to the diplomatic effort”. -RT
Perhaps Israel should be less fixated on the growing level of worldwide antipathy toward its actions taken against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and more concerned over being forced to split its military focus as Hezbollah begins to show signs of potentially opening a northern front against an Israeli military that cannot abandon the southern front.