(AFP, Beirut, 3rd) Hamas’s second-largest figure, Al-Aluri, was killed in an air strike in Beirut blamed on Israel. The leader of Hezbollah warned Israel today not to launch a war against Lebanon, with statements from Hezbollah and the Israeli army suggesting that both sides are unwilling to allow the war to spread beyond the Gaza Strip.
Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pointed out today in a conversation commemorating the fourth anniversary of the death of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Qasem Soleimani that Hamas’s No. 2 figure Aluri After the killing of Saleh al-Aruri, his Shiite militias “cannot remain silent”. This powerful militia is backed by Iran. Nasral said his heavily armed forces would fight to the end if Israel chose to expand the war into Lebanon, but he made no specific threats to take action against Israel.
Hamas has always been an ally of Hezbollah and is also supported by Iran. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination of Saleh al-Aruri, but has pledged to eliminate Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the group launched a cross-border attack on October 7 that it said killed 1,200 people. About 240 people were kidnapped.
“I will not respond to what you just mentioned. We are focused on fighting Hamas,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters when asked about Israel’s response to Hezbollah. “We have not seen Hezbollah’s full support for Hamas,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters when asked about Nasrallah’s remarks.
Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said neither Hezbollah nor Israel wanted war.
“From everything we know, Hezbollah has no clear intention to go to war with Israel or vice versa,” the official said.
Aluri’s killing further shows that the nearly three-month-old Israel-Kazakhstan war may spread beyond Gaza, engulfing the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Red Sea waterway. Hezbollah forces were involved.
Eluri’s death has deepened concerns that the Gaza war may become a broader regional conflict, because he was deputy chairman of the Hamas politburo, and his death was the first Israeli attack since the hostilities between the two sides began. Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
“If the enemy wants to launch a war against Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions,” Nasral said in a televised speech. “We are not afraid of war,” he added.
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2024-01-04 07:35:53
