Israeli Assassination Spree Has Untied Hezbollah’s Hands for ‘Broader and Deeper’ Strikes, Iran Says
© AFP 2023 / MAHMOUD ZAYYAT
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Mideast tensions reached new highs this week in the wake of the assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political bureau chief and top negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Hezbollah, Iran and Yemen’s Houthis have vowed to “punish” Israel for the killings.
Israel’s assassination of a top Hezbollah commander has untied the Lebanese militia’s hands for strikes deep inside Israel, a spokesperson for Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations has said.
“Until now, Hezbollah and the [Israeli] regime have, in an unwritten understanding, practically adhered to certain limits in their military operations, meaning…confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives,” the spokesperson said late on Friday.
“However, the Israeli regime’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut and the targeting of a residential building marked a deviation from these boundaries. We anticipate that, in its response, Hezbollah will choose both broader and deeper targets, and will not restrict itself solely to military targets and means,” the spokesperson said.
The comments followed Tuesday’s Israeli airstrike on a building in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, which killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and four civilians – two children and two women.
Hezbollah has amassed a vast missile, rocket and drone arsenal, including the Zelzal-2 and Fateh-110 ballistic missiles capable of targeting all or nearly all points inside Israel. The militia has up to 100,000 trained fighters, many of them battle hardened in combat against foreign-backed jihadists in Syria over the past decade, and against Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War. Hezbollah is closely aligned with Iran in the so-called Axis of Resistance anti-terrorism, anti-US and anti-Israel political and military coalition.
Map illustrating estimated range of some of Hezbollah's long-range missile capabilities.
© Photo : aijac.org.au
Shukr’s assassination on Tuesday was followed by the killing of Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard in Tehran on Wednesday. Haniyeh, 62, was Hamas’s chief negotiator, and had already lost nearly two dozen family members – including three sons, multiple grandchildren and a brother, in the course of the ongoing Gaza war.
On Thursday, Israel announced that Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif had been killed in a July 13 strike.
Israel’s assassination spree has reportedly strained its behind-the-scenes relationship with its top sponsor – the United States, with President Biden reportedly warning Prime Minister Netanyahu that he should not expect Washington to keep bailing Israel out if it keeps escalating tensions in the region.
Publicly, the US has shown firm military support for Tel Aviv, sending additional warships to the Middle East, including ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, and deploying additional fighter jets to the region to “reinforce” the US “defensive air support capability,” in the wake of the escalation. The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued an alert this week urging US citizens in Israel to be cautious of potential sudden aerial attacks as the world waits for a potential Iranian response to the Haniyeh killing.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday that Israel will be made to “weep terribly” for the murder of Shukr and Haniyeh, and should expect “rage and revenge on all the fronts supporting Gaza.”
Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani stressed in a phone call with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Friday that Tehran has an inherent and legitimate right to punish the “criminal Zionist gang” for Wednesday’s attack in Tehran. Iranian intelligence chief Ismail Khatib said Friday that the attack on Haniyeh was greenlit by the United States, and said the assassination had “put the Zionist regime’s bestial nature on display.”
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, has vowed a “military response” to Israel’s “crimes,” dubbing them “shameless and dangerous” and “a major escalation by the Israeli enemy.”
The string of assassinations this week comes against the background of the Gaza war approaching its tenth month, and casualties from the conflict nearing 40,000 people killed and over 91,000 – or roughly 16 percent of the Gaza Strip’s total pre-war population. Over 700 Israeli soldiers and police officers, and close to 900 civilians, have also been killed to date.
