(Daily Mail) Hezbollah’s chief has said the terror group is ‘fully prepared’ to join Hamas in its war against Israel as the conflict sparked by Saturday’s attack continues to escalate, with Israel warning residents in the north of a possible incursion over the Lebanon border.
Sheikh Naim Qassem addressed a large crowd of cheering supporters waving Hezbollah and Palestinian flags and holding pictures of burning Israeli ones.
He said major powers, Arab countries and the UN had ‘directly and indirectly’ told Hezbollah ‘not to interfere’ in ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Despite the warnings, the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese group – which has already clashed with Israeli forces in recent days – said it was ‘ready’ and would ‘contribute’ to confrontations against its southern neighbour.
Barely hours after his comments, the Israeli military warned residents of a village near the Lebanese border to hole up at home and lock doors and windows, saying a suspected armed infiltration was under way in the region.
The alert took place in Hanita, 500 yards from the border and opposite the Lebanese community of Aalma El-Chaeb. In response, Israel shelled Lebanese border villages.
Qassem’s comments came as Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant this afternoon called Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran an ‘axis of evil’. ‘Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas is one axis, an axis of evil. Everything is decided generally from Iran,’ he said.
Gallant was speaking alongside his American counterpart Lloyd Austin after Israel ordered more than one million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes ‘immediately’ and flee south in just 24 hours.
The order comes ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive aimed at eradicating Hamas in the the enclave, which was described today by the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency as ‘fast becoming a hellhole on the brink of collapse.’
The order has sparked widespread panic among civilians already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade, while the UN called such an evacuation ‘impossible’, saying it would turn an already tragic situation into a calamity.
Hezbollah’s chief has said the group is ‘fully prepared’ to join Hamas in its war against Israel which today declared the two terror groups and Iran ‘one axis of evil.’ Pictured: Hezbollah supporters wave the Palestinian flag and their party flag during a rally in Beirut on October 13
A Hezbollah supporter holds a picture of an Israeli flag that reads in Arabic, ‘Soon it will collapse’ during a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza, in Beirut on October 13
A Hezbollah supporter holds placard during a rally in Beirut on October 13
Sheik Naim Kassem (pictured today) – the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese terror group which has already clashed with Israel in recent days – said it was ‘ready’ and would ‘contribute’ to confrontations against Israel according to its own plan
Qassem’s comments came as Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said this afternoon that Hamas is part of an ‘axis of evil’ with Iran and Hezbollah, during a press conference delivered along side US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin (pictured together today)
As fighting sparked by Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on Saturday raged into its seventh day, Gallant said Palestinian civilians ‘who want to save their lives’ must heed Israel’s warning to evacuate southward in the enclave.
He declined, however, to answer a reporter’s question on whether Israel – which has signalled that a ground invasion could follow its current air barrage on Gaza – would stick to the 24-hour evacuation notice it issued on Friday morning.
Earlier, with around 12 hours left since giving the 24-hour warning, Israel dropped flyers over northern Gaza telling residents on the streets below to flee south.
Palestine‘s health minister has warned that Gaza is facing a humanitarian and health catastrophe and urged all countries and human rights groups to help with the immediate entry of medical and emergency aid to the enclave.
Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit branded the Israeli order a ‘forced transfer’ that he said constitutes a ‘crime‘, while the secretary general of the pan-Arab body, in a letter sent to UN chief Antonio Guterres, accused Israel of carrying out ‘an atrocious act of revenge… punishing helpless civilians in Gaza’.
Meanwhile, Hamas claimed at least 13 Israeli and foreign hostages held in northern Gaza have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours, and before Hamas operatives fired hundreds of rockets towards Israel around midday on Friday.
‘Thirteen prisoners… including foreigners’ were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, Hamas’s armed wing said Friday.
Israel dismissed the claims as ‘lies’.
Israel’s bombardment on Gaza began on Saturday after Hamas terrorists rampaged into the south of Israel, slaughtering at least 1,300 civilians.
Smoke rises above buildings, in the southern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike, October 13
Buildings are seen having been reduced to rubble in Gaza by Israeli air strikes
Gaza City residents are seen on their way out of the city to the southern safer parts
Residents of Gaza city begin to evacuate following an Israeli warning of increased military operations in the Gaza strip, October 13
Riding in a damaged vehicle a Palestinian family flees with hundreds of other following the Israeli army’s warning to leave their homes and move south before an expected ground offensive into Gaza City, October 13
An Israeli army Merkava battle tank deploys with others along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on October 13
Hamas’ attack was so coordinated and effective, analysts have said it is likely that the terrorist group had the backing of the Iranian government, which supports Hamas.
Iran heads the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ that includes powerful militant groups in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq.
Asked during a news conference whether Tehran consented to the weekend Hamas onslaught, Gallant said: ‘It doesn’t matter … (because) the idea is an Iranian idea.’
‘This is a war for the existence of Israel as a prosperous state, as a democratic state, as homeland of the Jewish people,’ Gallant said.
‘We are fighting for our home. We are fighting for our future. The path will be long, but ultimately I promise you we will win.’
He added: ‘Israel never and ever will not shoot civilians on purpose. Never,’ but he added that Hamas militants will camouflage themselves with the population and Israel will have to separate them.
Lloyd Austin, Gallant’s American counterpart, said Hamas fighters took ‘evil to another level’ from Islamic State jihadists, as he pledged ‘iron-clad’ backing for Israel in its war against the Palestinian terrorist group.
‘In encountering ISIS I felt as if we were staring evil in the eye – it was truly evil,’ said Austin after talks with his Israeli counterpart.
‘And what we’ve seen from Hamas, it takes that evil to another level.’
Austin said that munitions, air defence capabilities and other equipment and resources were ‘rapidly flowing’ to Washington’s closest Middle Eastern ally.
However, he also cautioned that the fightback against Hamas must have limits, cautioning that it was a time for ‘resolve’ and not ‘revenge’. ‘Democracies like ours are stronger and more secure when we uphold the laws of war,’ he said.
Gallant’s comments were echoed by Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Spectator TV Iran was the main threat to the country lying behind groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
‘Allow me to use an octopus metaphor,’ he said. ‘Israel is fighting the tentacles but the head is in Tehran. There is a strategic logic in saying, “Well you are fighting the tentacles but you can’t really win the war unless you deal with the head.”‘
Israel has ordered more than one million people to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive aimed at eradicating Hamas
Flyers dropped by the IDF warning residents to flee are seen in the skies above Gaza today
The order has sent panic through civilians and aid workers already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade, while the United Nations called such an evacuation ‘impossible’ that would turn an tragedy into calamity. Pictured: Children are seen in a Gaza City hospital
A Palestinian man runs amid the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli air strike on October 13
A Hamas official has called the evacuation order ‘fake propaganda’, urged Palestinians to stay in their homes and not to ‘fall for it’
Palestinians with their belongings flee to safer areas in Gaza City after Israeli air strikes
Smoke billows following Israeli strikes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza, October 13, 2023
Israeli army soldiers ride in the turret of a Merkava battle tank deploying along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on October 13
A column of heavy armoured personnel carriers (APCs) at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, as Israel gathers its forces around the enclave
Israel’s military sent one evacuation order directly on Friday morning, telling the 1.1 million people living north of an area called Wadi Gaza to move south. This would mean the entire population of Gaza City and its surroundings fleeing their homes
Israel’s military sent one evacuation order directly on Friday morning, telling the 1.1 million people living north of an area called Wadi Gaza to move south. This would mean the entire population of Gaza City and its surroundings fleeing their homes.
According to translations of the IDF flyers online, the army told residents that ‘terrorist organisations have started the war against the State of Israel.’
As a result, it said ‘Gaza City has become a battlefield’ and told residents they had to evacuate ‘Punik immediately and go to the south of the Gaza Valley.’
It also issued a stark warning to Palestinians not to try and cross into Israel.
‘For your security and safety: You should not return to Piona until further notice by the Israel Defense Army,’ the flyers said. ‘Generally and well-known shelters in Gaza City must be evacuated. It is forbidden to approach the security wall, and everyone who is approaching exposes himself to death.’
A small map was also printed on the bottom of the flyer, with arrows pointing from the north of Gaza to the south, showing the 1.1 million Palestinians which way to flee.
The UN says it is impossible to move that many people without devastating humanitarian consequences, and has urged Israel to rescind the order.
The 2.3 million people living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are densely packed into a sliver of land that is just 25 miles long and 7 miles wide which is already largely without power and where hospitals are overwhelmed.
Israel has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza with airstrikes and cut off food, water and electricity since Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,300 in Israel.
Israel’s directive, which comes seven days after Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, charged that Hamas terrorists were hiding in tunnels under the city.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official called the evacuation order ‘fake propaganda’, urged Palestinians to stay in their homes and not to ‘fall for it’.
The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs called on residents in the north of the territory to ‘remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation’.
The flurry of directives was taken as signalling an already expected Israeli ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a decision.
On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, no official decision has been made.
Any ground offensive would be the strongest response yet to Hamas’ shock assault, and would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal guerrilla warfare as Israeli soldiers go house-to-house and hunt down Hamas terrorists.
‘This evacuation is for your own safety,’ the Israeli military said, in a warning it said was sent to all Gaza City civilians.
The UN said it received a separate directive from the Israeli military shortly before midnight, giving all 1.1 million civilians of northern Gaza 24 hours to flee south.
It said the broad evacuation warning it received for all of Gaza’s north also applies to all UN staff and to the hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in UN schools and other facilities since Israel launched round-the-clock airstrikes.
‘The UN considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
‘The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,’ Dujarric said.
Another UN official said that the United Nations is trying to get clarity from Israeli officials at the senior most political level.
‘It’s completely unprecedented,’ the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesman of the Israel Defence Forces (lDF) said in a video update Friday that the evacuations were a ‘humanitarian step.’
‘The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and to move to the area south of the River Gaza.’
‘The Hamas terrorist organisation waged a war against the state of Israel and Gaza City is an area where military operations are taking place,’ he continued.
