Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion Gaza-based jihadi group Hamas praises Hezbollah, says “battle with the enemy must continue on all fronts until the liberation of the holy sites and the Arab and Islamic lands.”
In a major escalation unseen for over a decade, Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has fired at least 20 rockets at Israel.
This is Hezbollah’s first declared rocket attack into Israel in fifteen years. The rocket fire was the “first directly and openly carried out by the Hezbollah terror group since the 2006 Second Lebanon War,” The Times of Israel confirmed on Friday.
The Iran-sponsored terrorist group claimed responsibility for the Friday’s attacks, admitting that “the Islamic Resistance” targeted “the vicinity of Israeli enemy posts in Shebaa Farms with dozens of rockets fired,” The Jerusalem Post reported directly quoting Hezbollah sources.
Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed artillery to shell Hezbollah launch sites across the border.
And of course the Hezbollah truck-mounted rocket launcher is being operated by a member in civilian clothing pic.twitter.com/MJUTjIwRri
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 6, 2021
The Iran-sponsored Hezbollah is the world’s most heavily-armed terrorist group. “Israel estimates Hezbollah possesses over 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in the country. In recent years, Israel also has expressed concerns that the group is trying to import or develop an arsenal of precision-guided missiles,” The Associated Press noted on Friday.
Israeli Artillery bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to the rockets fired on Israel.
No country would ever tolerate rockets being fired on its civilians. We have every right to retaliate and defend ourselves. pic.twitter.com/IYV44qzyia
— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) August 6, 2021
The Times of Israel reported official Israeli response to Hezbollah’s aggression:
Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned Hezbollah and the Lebanese government on Friday that while the situation in their country is already dire, Israel was prepared to make it even worse, if quiet was not maintained on the northern border across which the Shiite terror group launched a barrage of rockets earlier in the day.
“We do not intend to let Hezbollah toy with us and Hezbollah knows this. Lebanon’s situation is shaky. We can make it even shakier,” Gantz told Channel 12, in reference to Israel’s northern neighbor, which is mired in economic collapse and political disarray.
“We recommend that Hezbollah, the Lebanese army and the Lebanese government don’t test the State of Israel,” the defense minister continued.
Hezbollah fired rockets from the southern Lebanese villages belonging to the Druze community, a persecuted minority in the Arab world. The actions are consistent with the Iranian-backed group’s strategy of using civilian populations in the territories under its control as human shields.
EXPOSED: Hezbollah used civilian areas in southern Lebanon to fire rockets into Israel this morning.
For Hezbollah, the men, women & children of Lebanon are nothing more than human shields for its terrorist operations.
The people of Lebanon deserve better. pic.twitter.com/e9dMtuIuTE
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 6, 2021
Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups cheered Hezbollah for the indiscriminate rocket fire aimed at the Jewish State, media reports said.
The Jerusalem Post reported the reaction from Hamas and other terrorist outfits:
Several Palestinian factions praised Hezbollah over the weekend for firing rockets into northern Israel and vowed to continue launching incendiary balloons from the Gaza Strip. (…)
Hamas welcomed the Hezbollah attack and said the “battle with the enemy must continue on all fronts until the liberation of the holy sites and the Arab and Islamic lands.”
Hamas said in a statement that it fully supports the right of the “resistance in Lebanon to respond to the Zionist aggression and violations.”
In response to Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets late Friday, Hamas said that those who are firing arson balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israel will not be intimidated or deterred.
Iran has invested billions of dollars in creating Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon. The Mullah regime has provided the Lebanese terrorist militia with military training, weaponry and precision-guided missiles in its campaign of terror against Israel. “Hezbollah may have been trying to demonstrate its superior rocket launching capabilities after the Friday barrage included 19 projectiles targeting the Galilee and the Golan Heights,” the Israeli news outlet Ynetnews commented.
Hezbollah is escalating the conflict at a time when the Iranian regime is stepping up its attacks on Israeli ships in the Arabian Sea. Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) struck an Israeli-owned ship with explosive-laden drones, killing two crew members. This is the second maritime attack of its kind since U.S. President Joe Biden stepped up efforts to restore the Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran.
