Hezbollah leader: US bears full responsibility for war in Gaza

“America is fully responsible for the ongoing war against Gaza and its people, and Israel is only an instrument of execution,” Nasrallah said.

According to him, the United States is “obstructing the ceasefire and the end of the aggression.”

In his speech, Nasrallah praised the Hamas attack four weeks ago in which the militants attacked southern Israel. During this attack, more than 1.4 thousand people died in Israel. people.

After this attack, Israel began a relentless bombing campaign against the Hamas-controlled enclave, during which, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 9,200 people were killed in the area. people, mostly civilians.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population severely short of food, water, medicine and fuel.

“This massive, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and execution,” Nasrallah said, implying that his militant group had no part in the attack.

“This operation was very successful because of the high level of secrecy,” he said via video link from an undisclosed location.

His speech is broadcast to a large crowd of supporters gathered on the southern outskirts of Beirut. Shots are heard in the air in the city to welcome Nasrallah’s speech.

He has reportedly not spoken publicly since the month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel began in 2006.

Urges not to interfere

The Hezbollah leader also said the group was engaged in unprecedented fighting with Israel and threatened to intensify it.

Nasrallah stopped short of declaring Hezbollah entering the war, but said the fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border would not be on the scale seen so far.

He warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, saying “all options” were possible and that the possibility of open conflict was real.

“On our Lebanese front, all options are open,” Nasrallah said. “To the enemy who might think of an attack or a pre-emptive operation in Lebanon, we say that would be the greatest folly of his entire existence.”

His statement broke weeks of silence since the start of the war between Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip, and Israel.

After Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israeli-Hezbollah exchanges of fire increased along Lebanon’s southern border, fueling fears that the war could widen.

Those exchanges of fire escalated on Thursday after the Jewish state said it responded with a wide-scale offensive, with Hezbollah attacking 19 Israeli positions at once.

Rockets also hit the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the border. The Lebanese branch of Hamas’ armed wing claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned that “the region is like a powder keg” and that “anything is possible” if Israel does not end its offensive on the Gaza Strip.

US President Joe Biden sent two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean and warned Hezbollah and other groups not to intervene in the conflict.

“We are dealing with important national security interests here,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council.

“I don’t think we’ve seen any concrete signs yet that Hezbollah is ready to go full force.” So we’ll see what he says,” he said.

“Axis of Resistance”

According to the AFP news agency, 72 people were killed on the Lebanese side, including at least 54 Hezbollah fighters, as well as other fighters and civilians, including a Reuters journalist.

At least six soldiers and one civilian were killed on the Israeli side, the army said.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht warned that “it would not be in his (Nasrallah’s) interest to escalate the situation in the north at this time,” but that if that were to happen, “our response will be very, very strong.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday he was doing everything he could to keep his country out of war and warned of an escalation he said was spreading across the region.

Some analysts believe Hezbollah has no interest in becoming fully involved in the conflict, which Israeli officials have threatened could destroy Lebanon.

Others say the decision must be made by Iran, which leads a regional “axis of resistance” against Israel. In addition to Hezbollah, it includes armed groups from Syria, Iraq and Yemen, some of which have attacked Israel and US interests in the region in recent weeks.

But Amal Saad, a Hezbollah expert at Cardiff University, said: “Hezbollah is not a proxy of Iran, it is an ally of Iran (…) Hezbollah does not need anyone’s permission to intervene.”

“Hezbollah has much more visible experience of fighting Israel than Iran — Iran has not directly faced Israel,” Saad added.