BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more.
Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front.
Gallant told Israeli troops last week that “we are preparing for anything that may happen in the north.”
In a speech in Beirut, Qassem said: “We have no intention of going to war, as we consider that this would not be useful.
“However, if Israel does unleash a war, we will face up to it — and there will be large losses on both sides,” he said.
“If they think such a war would allow the 100,000 displaced people to return home ... we issue this warning: prepare to deal with hundreds of thousands more displaced.”
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
Thousands of people living in the border area of both countries have been displaced by the fighting.
The cross-border violence since early October has killed 623 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 142 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
Qassem said on Saturday of those displaced in Israel: “It is impossible to bring them back, no matter the sacrifices made.
“So take your time and think about it before reaching a decision. We are prepared for any eventuality.”
In late August, Israel’s military said it had foiled a major assault by Hezbollah aimed at avenging a military commander killed by an Israeli air strike near Beirut.
Israel said it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers, while the Lebanese group insisted it had fired a drone and rocket barrage across the border.
It was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah since the Gaza war began.
However, the violence has since eased, with analysts believing that both sides wish to avoid a wider regional flare-up.
Hezbollah warns Israel against Lebanon border flare-up
https://arab.news/g5rba
Hezbollah warns Israel against Lebanon border flare-up
- Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front
Iran’s president names first Sunni governor in 45 years
Arash Zerehtan was appointed head of the western state, IRNA news agency said, citing government spokesman Fatemeh MoHajjerani.
He is the first Sunni to be made a regional governor in the predominantly Shiite country since the earliest days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Zerehtan, 48, served as a member of parliament for the city of Paveh between 2020 and this year.
Sunnis account for about 10 percent of Iran’s population, where the vast majority are Shiites and Shiite Islam is the official state religion.
They have very rarely held key positions of power since the revolution.
Pezeshkian, 69, took office in July after an early election following the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
During his election campaign, Pezeshkian criticized the lack of representation for ethnic and religious minorities, in particular Sunni Kurds, in important positions.
In August, he made another member of the Sunni minority, Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, one of his vice presidents.
Two children among 12 dead in Lebanon pager blasts: minister
- Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks
- The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs
BEIRUT: Exploding pagers claimed the lives of 12 people in Lebanon, including two children, the country’s health minister said Wednesday, updating the toll a day after the blasts blamed on Israel.
Hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.
On Wednesday, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed and between 2,750 and 2,800 others were wounded, revising the tolls up from nine dead.
“After checking with all the hospitals,” the toll was revised to “12 dead including two children,” Abiad told a news conference.
The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, he said.
The pagers went off in the Iran-backed Hezbollah group’s main strongholds of southern Beirut and Lebanon’s east and south.
Some cases in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley were transferred to Syria, while other cases would be evacuated to Iran, he added.
About 750 wounded people were in the south, about 150 were in the Bekaa Valley and some 1,850 were in the Beirut and its southern suburbs, he said.
Iran accuses Israel of ‘mass murder’ after pager explosions
- Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among the wounded
- Iranian Red Crescent dispatches “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded
TEHRAN: Iran accused Israel on Wednesday of “mass murder” after paging devices belonging to the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah group in Lebanon exploded, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement he “condemned the terrorist act of the Zionist regime... as an example of mass murder.”
Among those wounded in the pager blasts on Tuesday was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, with Iranian media reporting he suffered injuries “to the hand and the face.”
State television said that Amani was only lightly injured.
The Iranian Red Crescent said on Wednesday it had dispatched “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
The blasts came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks to include its fight against the group’s ally Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon.
In his statement, Kanani expressed solidarity with the families of those killed and wounded in the explosions including the Iranian ambassador.
“Combating the terrorist acts of the (Israeli) regime and the threats arising from them is an obvious necessity,” said Kanani.
“It is necessary for the international community to act quickly in order to counter the impunity of the Zionist criminal authorities.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah swears in new government led by Jaafar Hassan
- The reformist government was tasked with accelerating IMF-backed reforms and pushing through political and economic modernisation plans
- Under the new government, Ayman Safadi will serve as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and expatriates
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday swore in a new government led by Jaafar Hassan as prime minister and minister of defense, state news agency PETRA reported.
The reformist government was tasked with accelerating IMF-backed reforms and pushing through political and economic modernisation plans.
Under the new government, Ayman Safadi will serve as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and expatriates.
Earlier this week, Bisher Khasawneh’s government submitted the resignation of his government to King Abdullah II after parliamentary elections saw some gains for the Islamist opposition.
Hassan, a widely respected technocrat, replaced veteran diplomat and former palace advisor Al-Khasawneh, who is considered the longest-serving prime minister during King Abdullah II's reign.
The new prime minister was Jordan’s former planning minster. He recieved his education at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also the head of King Abdullah's office.
Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts
- The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m.
Beirut, Lebanon: Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for a deadly attack in which hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group’s members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks to include its fight against the Palestinian militant group’s ally Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”
On Wednesday, the group vowed in another statement on Telegram it would continue its fight in support of Gaza while reiterating it would avenge Tuesday’s blasts.
“This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, the group said.
The wave of blasts killed nine people, including a girl, and wounded 2,800 others, 200 of them critically, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said Tuesday.
“This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.
“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page.”
Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain,” he said.
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.
At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
“In all my life I’ve never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode,” said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
The blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source.”
After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company denied any link to the products.
Early Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks.
“The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war” to include “the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.
They have also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, “military action” would be “the only way left to ensure the return” of displaced residents to the border area.
Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France on Tuesday announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived back in the region at dawn on Wednesday to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington said it was still working with mediators Qatar and Egypt to finalize an agreement.
US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as “disgraceful.”
