Iran leader says militant groups 'will not back down' in war with Israel

LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has defended this week’s missile attack on Israel that deepened fears of a regional war and praised allies’ defiance.

He was speaking as part of a rare sermon in front of tens of thousands at a mosque in the capital Tehran.

In his first public sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei said armed groups in the Middle East “will not back down” even after a spate of Israeli killings of militant leaders.

Israel has been bombarding south Beirut since yesterday, Lebanese sources say, after it launched its deadliest strike on the occupied West Bank in decades.

Hezbollah accused the IDF of targeting rescuers in one of the overnight strikes.

The escalating assaults by Israel are claimed to be retaliation for Iran’s barrage of missiles fired at the country. The United States has said that Israel hitting Iranian oil facilities is on the table.

Iran said the attack was its response to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, chief of its ally Hezbollah, and other top figures.

Israel’s bombing in Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in a nation already mired in economic and political crisis.

Another strike late Thursday targeted a warehouse adjacent to the capital’s airport, a source close to Hezbollah said.

It’s understood that one strike has cut off the main international road to Syria, where people have been fleeing to.

Meanwhile, a source within the Palestinian security services told AFP that an air raid on the refugee camp of Tulkarm, killing 18 people, was the deadliest in the occupied West Bank since 2000.

The Israeli military said its strike in the northern West Bank killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, who it accused of participating in numerous attacks.

Israeli ground troops

Israel, at war in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack, has expanded its military campaign to secure its northern border and ensure the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah attacks over the past year.

A target of one of its recent Beirut strikes was Hashem Safieddine, a potential successor as Hezbollah head to Nasrallah who was killed a week ago, US news site Axios reported, citing three unidentified Israeli officials.

The Israeli military did not confirm the report when questioned by AFP.

Israel announced this week that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of heavy bombardment of areas across the country where the group holds sway.

Israel told Lebanese people to “immediately” evacuate more than 20 villages and the city of Nabatiyeh.

Hezbollah said it fought off Israeli troops on the border and set off two explosive devices against advancing soldiers.

The militant group also said it kept up its rocket fire, with sirens warning of incoming fire blaring in northern Israel early today.

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The Lebanese military said one of its soldiers was killed when “the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”, prompting retaliatory fire.

More than 40 paramedics and firefighters have been killed by Israeli fire in three days, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said early Friday that 37 people were killed and 151 wounded by Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli military said nine of its soldiers have been killed in combat in Lebanon.

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The latest strikes came after Hezbollah-backer Iran launched its second direct missile attack on Israel.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to elaborate on Iran’s thinking in a sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran on Friday, his first in nearly five years.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meanwhile due to land in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials, NNA reported.

As Israel weighs retaliation for the Iranian missile strike, President Joe Biden said the United States was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, in comments that sent oil prices spiking five percent.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “those who attack the state of Israel, pay a heavy price”.

Iran, which arms and funds Lebanon’s Hezbollah, said it would step up its response if Israel counterattacked.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said its missiles were fired in retaliation for Nasrallah’s killing in Beirut alongside that of a general in the Guards’ Quds force, as well as for the killing in July of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel intercepted most of the 200 missiles launched by Iran. In the West Bank, a Palestinian was killed by shrapnel.

‘Scared for our children’

The impact of the war was also felt in Syria, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor saying Thursday an Israeli strike in Damascus killed four people, including Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir, Nasrallah’s son-in-law.

The fighting comes as many Israelis observe Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

Rony Eli-Ya, 37, an Israeli on a pilgrimage to Ukraine’s Uman, said it was “a miracle, not a single rocket killed a single Jew” in Iran’s attack.

In Beirut, 35-year-old displaced nurse Fatima Salah said residents were “scared for our children, and this war is going to be long”.

Calls for restraint have multiplied but months of similar calls to halt fighting in Gaza failed to bring a ceasefire.

On the Gaza front, the military said a strike three months ago killed three senior Hamas leaders, including Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the militant movement’s government in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Hezbollah began strikes on Israeli troops a day after Hamas staged its October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has described the figures as reliable.

The ministry toll yesterday included 99 fatalities over the past 24 hours.