‘Glorious jihadi operation’: Hezbollah leader lauds attacks
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has spoken for the first time since Hamas launched an attack on Israel but denied the militant group had any role in its planning.
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Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has described Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as a “glorious jihadi operation”, but he denied any role in its planning.
In his first speech since the start of the conflict last smonth, Nasrallah said that Lebanon was “proud” of all those who died attacking Israel, but denied the involvement of Hezbollah.
“This glorious, blessed large` scale operation was one hundred per cent Palestinian in terms of decision and execution,” he said. “The Palestinians had kept it secret.”
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“We are entitled to take pride in them. We must remain firm with certainty that they are rewarded in paradise ... Those fallen martyrs are alive in God’s paradise.”
Since the October 7 attack there have been escalating exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian terrorist group.
In his address, Nasrallah falsely claimed that the Israeli civilians who were killed in communities on the border with Gaza were killed by the Israeli military and not Hamas, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He blamed the deaths on Israeli troops who were “acting insanely as they were caught by surprise and were drunk”.
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BOMBED AMBULANCE ‘WAS CARRYING HAMAS TERRORISTS’
The Israel Defence Force said an ambulance bombed outside a Gaza City hospital on Friday (local time) was carrying Hamas terrorists.
Photos taken outside the Al-Shifa Hospital show locals gathered around the ambulance which was ferrying people from that location to the border with Egypt.
AFP reported that according to the head of the Hamas government's press service, the strike targeted "an ambulance convoy which was preparing to transport wounded people from Al-Shifa hospital".
In response, the IDF said on X, formerly Twitter: “A Hamas terrorist cell was identified using an ambulance. In response, an IDF aircraft struck and neutralized the Hamas terrorists, who were operating within the ambulance. We emphasize that this area in Gaza is a war zone. Civilians are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southward for their own safety.”
According to reports on the ground, several people were killed and injured in the strike.
ISRAELI OPERATIVES UNCOVER HAMAS BATTLE PLANS AND MAPS
The IDF revealed it had uncovered operational plans, communication devices and personal details of Hamas terrorists in a raid on the group’s Jabaliya stronghold.
Days after an Israeli air strike hit Gaza’s biggest refugee camp in Jabaliya, that reportedly killed dozens of people including a key Hamas leader, the IDF released images of vital Hamas intelligence it had captured.
The maps and personal information were posted on social media as evidence of the successful raid by the Israelis
ISRAEL WARNS OVER TRAVEL, DISPLAYS OF IDENTITY
Israel has urged its citizens to reconsider their travel plans and to conceal their national identity and Jewish identity.
The National Security Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs has cautioned “all citizens of Israel to exercise heightened caution when travelling anywhere abroad”.
Prefacing the warning with “ I can’t believe I had to announce this”: Israeli goverment spokesperson Eylon Levy said: “We know that Jewish communities and their institutions, Israeli diplomatic missions and airports handling flights to and from Israel are key targets for violent antisemites.
“Rethink if foreign travel is really necessary. If you have to go, avoid displaying outward signs of your Israeli or Jewish identity.
“Citizens planning to travel to countries with specific travel warnings are asked to postpone their visits and we emphasise Arab and Middle Eastern states, the Northern Caucuses and countries bordering Iran.”
HAMAS FOILED SMUGGLING IN TUNNEL INFRASTRUCTURE
Further heightening Israel’s concerns of Hamas taking advantage of any pause and hijacking aid conveys, came reports inspectors found oxygen concentrators that would have been used to aerate the terror organisation’s terror networks smuggled in boxes of cookies amid aid destined for Gaza through the border with Egypt.
“These weren’t for use in the hospitals, but below them. That’s why they were smuggled among boxes of cookies,” one of the senior Israeli officials said
ATTACK CAUSED ‘SEISMIC EARTHQUAKE’
Nasrallah also spoke about the “repercussions” of the war between Gaza and Israel.
“No doubt it was a brave, creative, heroic, perfect massive operation commended at all fronts and at all levels. What are the repercussions of this glorious operation?” he said.
“It caused a seismic earthquake in terms of security, military, politics, diplomacy, and even psychologically.”
He added that it has “lifted the lid and uncovered many facts”.
“Speaking of the repercussions, the glorious repercussions and effects of this glorious operation requires hours if not days,” he said.
“However, what’s more important, it has exposed the frailty, weakness of Israel, more frail than a spider’s web,” he said.
This fact was established and cemented by the operation. Where is the invincible army of Israel?”
HOSTAGE RELEASE WON’T HAPPEN WITHOUT NEGOTIATION
Nasrallah said that the release of hostages held in Gaza will not happen without negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli government.
“What’s happened in Gaza today exposes the impotancy and weakness of the Israelis,” he said.
Israel’s war against Gaza will “end in defeat”, Nasrallah added, and the military “will achieve nothing” by killing civilians.
“What’s taking place in the Gaza strip, seen by the whole world, reveals and proves once again the brutal and barbaric nature of the zionist regime of Israel,” he said.
Nasrallah also said Israel “never learns from past lessons or experiences” with Palestine or Lebanon and “cannot achieve” their goal of eliminating Hamas.
“Among the gravest mistakes committed by the enemy in the past is setting high goals that they cannot achieve. They set as the top goal to annihilate Hamas, the whole of Hamas,” he said.
Nasrallah said that Israel’s aim to eliminate Hezbollah had failed in the past.
ISRAEL OPPOSES CEASEFIRE UNLESS HOSTAGES ARE FREED
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday local time that his government opposed any temporary ceasefire in Gaza unless Hamas freed all the hostages it holds.
He also said that it would continue to block fuel from entering Gaza.
“Israel is objecting a temporary ceasefire which does not include freeing all our hostages,” Netanyahu said.
“Israel does not allow fuel into the Gaza Strip and is objecting to funds being transferred into Gaza strip.”
The Israeli military said 241 hostages are believed to have been taken by Hamas on October 7.
The military also said Friday the death toll of Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza is up to 25.
WASHINGTON IN FAVOUR OF A ‘HUMANITARIAN PAUSE’
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said Washington was in favour of “humanitarian pauses” in the war to allow for further aid to reach civilians trapped within the Gaza Strip.
Mr Blinken also said during the news conference that the US and Israel have “identified mechanisms” to get much-needed fuel to Gaza’s hospitals.
“When it comes to humanitarian assistance, the Israeli government is committed to enabling that assistance to get to people in Gaza,” he told reporters at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
“Over the last two weeks, we have gone from nothing getting in through the Rafah crossing to just today, well over 100 trucks [entering],” Mr Blinken added.
“That’s significant progress … but its also insufficient, and there’s a recognition not only by us of that fact but also by the Israeli government as well as our Egyptian partners and the United Nations.
“So we are looking at very concrete, practical ways to widen the aperture, to significantly increase the assistance that’s getting in - the food, the medicine, the water and fuel, and other critical needs for people who through no fault of their own are in desperate, desperate need.”
TROOPS PUSH INTO GAZA AFTER BLOODY NIGHT
Israeli troops pushed further into Gaza City after another bloody night of fighting in which dozens of Hamas terrorists were killed when they tried to ambush an advancing armoured tank.
There were heavy clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters as the Israeli troops “completed the encirclement” of Gaza city, the most densely populated area in the besieged strip housing its biggest hospital and other key facilities.
“We have advanced another significant stage in the war. The forces are in the heart of northern Gaza, operating in Gaza City, surrounding it, and deepening [the ground offensive] and its achievement,” Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said.
US SECRETARY OF STATE MEETS WITH NETANYAHU
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Blinken is later expected to travel to Jordan where he will hear from several Arab leaders directly.
The Prime Minister’s office said Mr Blinken will also meet “with the members of the War Cabinet”.
HAMAS COMMANDER KILLED; IDF DEATH TOLL RISES
The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed the commander of Hamas’s Sabra-Tel al-Hawa battalion, Mustafa Dalloul, in an overnight air strike in the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, Dalloul “took a key role in the management of the fighting against IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.”
It comes after 130 Hamas terrorists were killed among them were those who tried to ambush the tank.
Four Israeli soldiers aged from 22 to 41 were killed in the fighting bringing the death toll since Israel began its ground offensive to 23. Another two were seriously injured.
The commander of the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 13th Battalion described how IDF troops managed to fight off an ambush after Hamas fighters emerged from tunnels and tried to enter the tank.
“While we were stopping, Hamas terrorists jumped out of tunnels, surrounded us from a number of areas, fired RPGs, and tried to reach our Namer [armoured personnel carriers], and place explosives,” Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Greenberg said.
“Because we were well prepared, we managed to kill some of them, push back the others … the result was that they were dead and we continued our manoeuvre, until victory”.
ISRAEL’S WARNING TO EVACUATE REFUGEE CAMP
Israeli planes have been dropping leaflets warning residents to immediately evacuate the Shati refugee camp, which borders Gaza City’s centre.
The leaflets say “Time is up,” and warn strikes “with crushing force” against Hamas fighters were coming.
The push further into Gaza city has incited a fresh volley of rocket attacks on northern Israel from Hamas fighters in Lebanon.
The Qassam Brigades has claimed it fired 12 rockets towards the Israeli town of Keryat Shmona in retaliation for the “massacres against our people in Gaza”.
Footage on Sky News showed destruction on the streets of Northern Israel with cars and buildings ablaze. One family who had previously evacuated the town had just returned to the area and got out of their car just minutes before it was struck by a rocket.
The attacks from Lebanon come amid unconfirmed reports that the US has intelligence that the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner Group, may be providing an air defence system to Hezbollah.
FEARS SECOND WAR FRONT COULD OPEN UP
There are also growing concerns of a second war front opening up, ahead of a much-anticipated speech by Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was due to speak on Friday night, for the first time since the Israel-Gaza war began. Hezbollah, which is headquartered in Lebanon and backed by Iran, is a much better armed and more entrenched force than Hamas in Gaza.
Nasrallah is seen as a leading voice in the alliance known as the “Axis of Resistance”, led by Iran to counter the influence of the United States and Israel.
Even if Nasrallah declares a widening of the conflict, Israel has said it has the capacity to defend itself on multiple fronts.
IDF Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said “we do not want additional war not with Hezbollah, not with Iran, or anybody else.”
He acknowledged Hezbollah is a far more powerful military force than Hamas but he said the only a third of the Israeli air force has so far been deployed in the war with Hamas and is on standby.
HEARTBREAKING FOOTAGE AFTER REFUGEE CAMP STRIKE
The situation for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip remains dire with heartbreaking footage showing desperate people digging through mounds of rubble with bare hands looking for their children trapped underneath.
A United Nations school in the Bureij refugee camp, where people where sheltering, was damaged by an IDF strike. Twenty 20 people reported killed.
Separately a Palestine TV correspondent and 11 members of his family were killed.
Mohammad Abu Hattab, the 36th journalist killed in the conflict, had been reporting live on-air outside of Nasser hospital, but was killed half an hour later when he had returned home, the network reported.
News of his death came as the IDF announced on Friday it is “facilitating” the entry of food, water medicine and medical equipment for civilians in Gaza. It has also said, for the first time, that if hospitals run out of fuel it will be allowed in via the Rafah crossing with Egypt under supervision.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, has also said Israel will provide safe corridors for Gazans to leave the north and evacuate to the south.
Meanwhile US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have claimed the US has been flying surveillance drones over Gaza in search of hostages.
Israel has announced it is severing all contact with Gaza and will send back all Gazans working inside the country to the strip.
Before the Israel-Hamas conflict started, Israel had issued work permits to about 18,500 Gazans.
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