Hezbollah leader says Hamas assault on Israel was ‘100 per cent Palestinian’, warns of wider Middle East conflict

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, said on Friday that the operation launched by the Hamas militant group against Israel on October 7 was “100 per cent Palestinian”.

A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

In his lengthy remarks, Nasrallah praised the Hamas attack four weeks ago in which the militants attacked farming villages and military posts in southern Israel. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel in the attack.

“This great, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation,” Nasrallah said, suggesting his militia had no part in the attack. “The great secrecy made this operation greatly successful.”

Nasrallah thanked groups in Yemen and Iraq, part of what is known as the “Axis of Resistance”. It includes Shi’ite Muslim Iraqi militias which have been firing at US forces in Syria and Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthis, who have joined in the conflict by firing drones at Israel.

He said the October 7 operation led to an “earthquake” in Israel and that it exposed the country’s weakness.

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Nasrallah also said a wider conflict in the Middle East was a realistic possibility in a speech that was expected to indicate whether his group would wage a full-fledged war against Israel.

Hezbollah have been escalating day by day, forcing Israel to keep its forces near the Lebanese border instead of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, Nasrallah said.

“What’s happening on the border might seem modest but is very important.”

Nasrallah warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, saying “all options” were on the table and that the chance of open conflict was “realistic”.

“All options are open on our Lebanese front,” Nasrallah said, adding: “We say to the enemy that might think of attacking Lebanon or carrying out a pre-emptive operation, that this would be the greatest foolishness of its existence.”

The Hezbollah leader blamed the United States for for the war in Gaza and the high civilian death toll and that a de-escalation in the besieged enclave was vital to prevent regional war.

“America is entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people, and Israel is simply a tool of execution,” Nasrallah said. The US “impedes a ceasefire and the end of the aggression”.

Additional reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse