Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah, convened a summit featuring top leaders from Sunni terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) on Wednesday, allegedly meant to plan future violence following Hamas’s mass murder of over 1,400 Israelis on October 7.
The Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar propaganda outlet named Nasrallah’s guests as Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ziad Nakhale and Hamas deputy chief Saleh Al-Arouri and called the meeting “highly anticipated” and “monumental” in the jihadist community, as it was the first summit of its kind since October 7.
On that day, Hamas launched what it calls the “al-Aqsa flood,” an expansive terrorist invasion of Israel in which Hamas thugs tortured, raped, and butchered civilian families in their homes. Terrorists went door-to-door massacring Israelis; evidence compiled by Israeli authorities included gruesome scenes of people, including infants, burned alive, stabbed to death, and decapitated.
One of the largest single death tolls in the day occurred at a music festival, where Hamas terrorists opened fire on crowds of attendees and abducted civilians via motorcycle.
Hamas terrorists also desecrated corpses and filmed themselves doing so in an apparently drug-fueled frenzy.
PIJ has served as a junior partner in terror attacks on Israel, attempting to shoot rockets at Israeli targets. Last week, a misfired rocket identified as originating with PIJ hit the Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing dozens (estimates range between 50 and 500 people). Pro-Palestinian groups initially blamed the attack on the Israeli government.
The Hezbollah terror summit was meant as a display of solidarity across Islamic lines for the common goal of destroying Israel and committing genocide against Jewish people.
All three groups support the eradication of Israel and have orchestrated attacks to kill Jews regardless of their affiliation with Israel.
“The leaders tackled latest developments since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the events that followed on all fronts including the confrontations across the border between Lebanon and the occupied Palestine,” the Hezbollah “media relations office” said in its statement on the meeting. Al-Manar said that the groups also discussed “subsequent ramifications” of the Hamas killings, without elaborating.
“Sayyed Nasrallah assessed with Nakhale and Al-Arouri the international and regional stances as well as steps to be taken by the Axis of Resistance in this critical phase,” Hezbollah explained, “in order to achieve an all-out victory and to stop the brutal attack on the oppressed people of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Islamic theology disagreements aside, Hezbollah has supported Hamas following the October 7 massacre with attacks from Lebanon, where it is established as a political party and influential hub of power. According to the Qatari outlet al-Jazeera, which is sympathetic to anti-Israel groups, Hezbollah “has had near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the Israeli-Lebanese border.”
Iran’s PressTV state propaganda outlet reported on Wednesday that, in addition to Nasrallah’s meeting, the terrorist organization’s “Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem” issued statements threatening a full-scale Hezbollah assault on Israel.
“Sheikh Qassem said in a post published on social media that Hezbollah has its ‘finger on the trigger’ to whatever extent it deems necessary to defend Gaza and to face off the occupiers of Palestine,” PressTV relayed.
“Hezbollah has warned that it will join the Palestinian resistance in the fight against Israel if the occupying regime escalates its aggression on Gaza and in case foreign military forces intervene to help the Israeli regime in the battle.”
Israel has for years warned that is a direct proxy of the Iranian government and intends to destroy the country.
“Iran has proxies. One of them is Hezbollah. Hezbollah just joined the government of Lebanon. That’s a misnomer; they actually control the government of Lebanon,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the United Nations in 2019. “It means that Iran controls the government of Lebanon.”
Hezbollah, PIJ, and Hamas all enjoy lavish financial support from Iran, the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism. According to a 2020 report by the U.S. State Department, Iran funnels about $100 million a year to Hamas and PIJ. Estimates suggest that Hezbollah receives a much more formidable $700 million a year from the Iranian Islamist regime.
A spokesman for Hamas told the BBC on October 7 that Iran offered “direct backing” for the massacre.
Despite its prominent role in the conflict already, Iran has threatened repeatedly to become directly involved in attacks on Israel.
“The continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes (in Gaza) and the direct support and backing from certain countries would further complicate the situation and could make other actors intervene in this arena,” the head of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, said last week, leaving open the possibility that Iran would be one of those “other actors.”
“Our strategy towards the Zionist entity never changes: the removal of the Zionist entity. Israel must be eliminated,” Iranian Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier-General Abolfazl Shekarchi said in 2021.
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