Hezbollah leader says Hamas Oct 7 assault was ‘100% Palestinian’

BEIRUT – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking in public for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, said on Friday

the operation launched by the Hamas militant group

against Israel on Oct 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.

Mr Nasrallah, who appeared via video link on a giant screen in Beirut, thanked groups in Yemen and Iraq, part of what is known as the “axis of resistance”. It includes Shi’ite Muslim Iraqi militias that have been firing at American forces in Syria and Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthis, who have joined in the conflict by firing drones at Israel.

He warned that a wider conflict in the Middle East was a realistic possibility, depending on how events unfold in the Gaza Strip. “What’s happening on the border might seem modest but is very important,” he said.

Mr Nasrallah said the Oct 7 operation led to an “earthquake” in Israel, and that it exposed the country’s weakness.

He said one of the biggest mistakes Israel is making now in its war against Hamas in Gaza is pursuing goals that it cannot achieve.

“For a whole month, Israel could not offer a single military achievement,” Mr Nasrallah said, adding that Israel can only get back the hostages held by Hamas through negotiation.

He blamed the conflict and high Palestinian civilian death toll on the United States.

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

As the war heightens tensions across the Middle East, officials from across the region and beyond are closely watching Hezbollah, a Hamas ally that is also supported by Iran and committed to the destruction of Israel, for signs that the violence could spread.

Hezbollah is a more powerful and sophisticated military force than Hamas; it has tens of thousands of trained fighters, an arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets and a stock of precision guided missiles that can strike sensitive targets deep inside Israel.

Military analysts believe the group may have other military capabilities that it has yet to unveil.

Mr Nasrallah is a highly respected figure in the axis of resistance.

A decision by Hezbollah to launch a full-on war with Israel would likely encourage attacks by its allies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

As the Gaza death toll from Israeli air strikes and ground incursions that began last week rises into the high thousands, Hezbollah and Israel

have clashed along the Israel-Lebanon border

, targeting each other’s positions and killing combatants on both sides.

But analysts say Hezbollah and Israel so far appear to be calibrating their actions to avoid setting off a broader war.

Hezbollah has released videos of its fighters launching guided missiles at Israeli communications infrastructure along the border, presumably in an effort to handicap Israeli surveillance.

Fighting along the border expanded on Thursday, with both Hezbollah and Hamas claiming responsibility for strikes in northern Israel, and Hezbollah announcing that it attacked an Israeli army position with exploding drones.

Israel bombed sites in Lebanon that its military said were Hezbollah arms caches and command centres.

In recent days, Hezbollah supporters have shared videos on social media with glimpses of Mr. Nasrallah and scenes of uniformed Hezbollah fighters preparing for battle, raising expectations that expanded military activity is on the way. REUTERS, NYTIMES