Hamas leader vows group will ‘rise like phoenix’: Iran warns Israel

Jerusalem/Beirut: Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal vowed the Palestinian group would rise “like a phoenix” from the ashes, and would continue to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons, despite heavy losses suffered during a year of war with Israel.

A year after the Hamas attack that triggered the war, Meshaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating back to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or catastrophe, when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.

Heavy smoke and flames billow from Beirut’s southern suburb after an Israeli airstrike. Credit: Getty Images

“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview published on Tuesday.

“We go through phases where we lose martyrs and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to God.”

Meshaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997 after he was injected with poison and was overall Hamas leader from 1996-2017, said the Islamist militant group was still able to mount ambushes against Israeli troops.

Meshaal remains influential in Hamas and is widely seen now as its diplomatic face. He is one of six Hamas leaders indicted by the US Justice Department on terrorism charges over the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined comment on Meshaal’s remarks.

His comments appear intended as a signal that the group will fight on whatever its losses, Middle East analysts said.

“Overall I would say [Hamas is] alive and kicking still and ... will probably come back at some point in Gaza,” said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa Program Director of the International Crisis Group.

Also on Tuesday, Iran warned Israel against any attacks on the Islamic Republic a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles on it, putting the Middle East further on edge.

Any attack on Iran’s infrastructure would be met with retaliation, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

The warning came as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was preparing to leave for Washington and as the country continues to weigh how to respond to Iran while the US urges restraint.

Gallant would on Wednesday discuss the “ongoing Middle East security developments” with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it had begun ground operations in south-west Lebanon, expanding its incursions to a new zone against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

It also piled more pressure on the group earlier, eliminating the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters in a strike in an area of Beirut, it said in a statement.

If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be a result of Israel’s strategy of inflicting major blows by assassinating leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas.

Tension between arch-foes Iran and Israel is running high after years of shadow war and assassinations have turned into direct confrontations.

Smoke rises from destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Choueifat, south east of Beirut, on Monday.Credit: AP

US news website Axios cited Israeli officials as saying Iran’s oil facilities could be hit, which would be a serious escalation that could drive up global oil prices.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oilfields if he were in Israel’s shoes.

Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, late on Monday, saying it had targeted a military base, and launched another strike on Tiberias, 40 kilometres away.

Israel’s military said around 190 projectiles had entered Israeli territory. There were at least 12 injuries.

Israel’s military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and two Israeli soldiers were killed, taking the Israeli military death toll inside Lebanon to 11.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported dozens of deaths, including 10 firefighters killed in an airstrike on a municipal building in the border area. Around 2000 Lebanese have been killed since Hezbollah began firing at Israel a year ago in solidarity with Hamas, most of them killed in the past few weeks.

Israeli airstrikes have displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon, and Israel’s intensified bombing campaign has left many Lebanese worried their country will experience the vast scale of destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel.

Israeli forces issued a warning in Arabic to beachgoers and boat users to avoid a stretch of the Lebanese coast, saying it would soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.

Reuters, Bloomberg

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