Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial ceremony.

JNS

Just as the Israel Defense Forces settled the score with Fu’ad Shukr, the Jewish state will not hesitate to take out anyone who dares threaten its existence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in his first public remarks since the killing of the top Hezbollah commander.

In a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday night, the Israeli premier again reiterated that Jerusalem is fighting an existential war against Iran’s “axis of evil,” which includes Hezbollah and Hamas.

“Yesterday, we targeted Fu’ad Shkur, the chief of staff of Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said, emphasizing that the terrorist commander was the one who had ordered Saturday, July 27, “massacre of our children in Majdal Shams.”

Hezbollah’s No. 2 “was responsible for the incessant attacks against our people in the north. He was involved in the murder of 241 American soldiers and 58 French soldiers in [Lebanon in] 1983. He was in charge of the entire missile operations of Hezbollah,” the prime minister continued.

Netanyahu in his approximately five-minute speech did not mention the death of Hamas “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a targeted killing attributed to Israel early Wednesday morning as Haniyeh was visiting Tehran.

The Israeli leader did note that the Jewish state dealt a “very strong blow” against Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region in recent days.

“For months now, every week, people tell me—both in and outside of Israel—to finish the war. But I did not give in to these voices then, and I will not give in to these voices today,” he vowed.

Israel has “some challenging days” ahead as Hezbollah and Iran have threatened to avenge the death of the terrorist leaders, Netanyahu said.

“We will stand together against any threat from any arena,” the premier vowed.

A strike by the Israeli Air Force in Beirut on Tuesday killed Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander responsible for Saturday’s rocket barrage that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, as well as a 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 U.S. and French troops in Beirut.

Hours later, Haniyeh died when a missile hit his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guest house in Tehran. An Iranian source told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen, which is close to Hezbollah, that the strike “was carried out using a missile launched from country to country, not from within Iran.”

Non-Western nations slam ‘unacceptable,’ ‘shameful’ Haniyeh killing

JNS

Non-Western nations are condemning the assassination in Tehran of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh and holding Israel responsible, though it has not taken credit for the killing.

Russia, which hosted a Hamas delegation shortly after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, and Turkey, whose president recently spoke of invading Israel, both denounced the killing. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, ”This is an absolutely unacceptable political murder, and it will lead to further escalation of tensions.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said, “We condemn the assassination of the leader of Hamas’s political office, Ismail Haniyeh, in a shameful assassination in Tehran.”

Iran said the Haniyeh’s death wouldn’t be in vain and “will strengthen the deep and inseparable bonds between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Palestine and resistance,” according to the country’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

Iran’s newly installed president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said: “We will make the occupying terrorist regime [Israel] regret its action,” Iranian media reported.

“Iran will defend its sovereignty, dignity, reputation and honor,” he added.

Hamas said Haniyeh died “as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid” and promised that his death would not go unanswered. “The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns the sons of our great Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation, and all the free people of the world,” the terror group said in a statement.

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah organization signed a unity deal with Hamas on July 23 in China, called the assassination “a cowardly act and a dangerous development.”

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said, “Targeting Ismail Haniyeh is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Haniyeh was “martyred” and expressed “condolences to the heroic nation of Palestine and the Islamic nation and the combatants of the Resistance Front and the noble nation of Iran.”

Jordan characterized the killing as a violation of international law and humanitarian law. Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah said Israel’s crimes would drag the region into a wider conflict, threatening regional and international peace and security.

China also condemned the assassination, warning it could lead to “further instability in the regional situation.”

Although the United States didn;t immediately respond to the incident, it had already directed warships toward the Eastern Mediterranean after the Tuesday night assassination by Israel of Fuad Shukr, described as Hezbollah’s chief of staff, and promised to come to Israel’s aid should it be attacked.

Speaking to the press in the Philippines on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “We’ve committed to helping Israel defend itself for whatever it takes,” speaking of the possibility of war in Israel’s north between Israel and Hezbollah.

Haniyeh, who was in Iran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian, was killed at his Tehran guest house, according to Iranian media reports.

Western nations calls for restraint in wake of Shukr, Haniyeh killings

JNS

 

The U.S. and other Western nations have urged restraint amid Israel’s targeted killing of Hezbollah’s No. 2 and the subsequent assassination, allegedly by the Jewish state, of Hamas “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Speaking to the press in the Philippines on Tuesday night before the strike on Haniyeh in Tehran, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that “while we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable.”

Although the U.S. didn’t immediately respond to Haniyeh’s death, it directed warships toward the Eastern Mediterranean after Tuesday’s killing of top Hezbollah commander Fu’ad Shukr in Beirut and vowed to come to Jerusalem’s aid should it be attacked.

“We’ve committed to helping Israel defend itself for whatever it takes, and certainly that’s not a scenario that we’d like to see occur. We’d like to see things resolve in a diplomatic fashion going forward,” said Austin.

The German Foreign Ministry said  that it is “essential to avoid further escalation and a regional conflagration.

“We call on all actors to exercise maximum restraint, the logic of tit-for-tat reprisals is the wrong path,” a spokesman said.

The European Union’s chief spokesperson for foreign affairs, Peter Stano, likewise called on “all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation,” adding that “no country and no nation stand to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, during an interview with the TG1 public television station on Tuesday, warned the Israeli government against “falling for Hezbollah’s provocations” on its northern border.

“Israel has the right to defend itself, but it must prevent the conflict from spreading,” Tajani told his country’s national broadcaster.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati following the Beirut attack.

“I have conveyed my concerns about the escalation of tensions in the region,” Madrid’s top diplomat tweeted on Tuesday night, adding, “We must continue to make efforts to end violence and protect civilians.”