A rain of fire, unprecedented since the beginning of the conflict, was launched by the Lebanese Hezbollah on northern Israel a few hours after the long-awaited truce between Hamas and the Jewish state came into force: an escalation that had been in the air for days and which was partly revealed by the killing, in Israeli raids, of the son of Hezbollah’s parliamentary group leader, Muhammad Raad, and of two commanders of the elite forces of the Party of Pro-Iranian God.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian returned to Beirut, where he met Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah and the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Lebanon.
“We are in Beirut to consult with the Lebanese authorities on how to strengthen security in the region and how to realize Palestinian rights,” the Iranian minister said. In the same hours, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israeli military positions both along the front line and deep in the Upper Galilee. In all, around 50 bombs were thrown by Lebanese fighters against enemy barracks and quarters.
This had never happened since the outbreak of hostilities on 8 October. Hezbollah claims to have killed 4 Israeli soldiers but there is no confirmation of this. Israel responded to the fire with intense and repeated air and artillery raids.
The Party of God itself announced the death of other of its militiamen, raising the number of “martyrs fallen on the road to Jerusalem” to around 90 since the beginning of the war., as are the Hezbollah fighters killed by Israel in the Hamas offensive from Gaza. According to Hezbollah sources, cited by the Lebanese media, this unprecedented intensification of attacks is “in response to the killing” of the son of MP Muhammad Raad. But other commentators underline the coincidence with the approach of the application of the truce agreement between Hamas and the Jewish state.
Also because the same spokesperson for the Izzeddin al Qassam Brigades of Hamas in Gaza, Abu Obeida, invited “the West Bank and all the other fronts of the resistance” to “escalate the confrontation with the occupying enemy”. So much so that pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria have today claimed responsibility for new attacks against US military bases along the Euphrates valley in Syrian and Iraqi territory.
The US military commands in Iraq and Syria have confirmed recent air raids carried out with drones, but do not provide details on any casualties and damage to military facilities. In all, according to the Pentagon, from October 17 to today, more than 70 attacks have been carried out by pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria against US targets in the region. Above the noise of the battle echoed the rhetoric of the Iranian foreign minister himself on a visit to Beirut. «
If Israel’s war crimes and genocide continue, the resistance will enact a harsher and more complicated scenario,” Amir Abdollahian said. “What is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is genocide, a serious violation of human rights and forced migration,” the minister said. “Maintaining the ceasefire can prevent further expansion of the scale of the war,” he added.