As the war against Hamas rages on in Israel, Iran continued to leverage its proxies in Beirut this weekend while Israel prepared for a possible ground assault on Gaza.
While the Iranian foreign minister met with its proxy Hezbollah in Beirut, the Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi warned the Lebanese militant group not to start a war on a second front, threatening the "destruction of Lebanon" if it did.
The regime’s UN representatives wrote on X further warnings against the Jewish state, calling the attack on Gaza a “genocide”, in spite of October 7’s attack on Israeli soil being the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust as militant slaughtered civilians in towns across Israel's south.
“If the Israeli apartheid’s war crimes and genocide are not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control and ricochet far-reaching consequences — the responsibility of which lies with the UN, the Security Council & the states steering the Council toward a dead end,” it stated.
On a visit to Lebanon as part of a regional tour this weekend, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed Hezbollah, its biggest proxy positioned on Israel’s northern border, had scenarios “designed” and “prepared” in case the blitz on Gaza does not stop.
In strong words, he warned that if Israel did not stop its attacks on Gaza which have so far taken out key military figures, “their [Hezbollah’s] finger is on the trigger to shoot”, putting it right in the middle of the conflict it continues to deny involvement in.
Amir-Abdollahian added: “I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place. Any step the resistance [Hezbollah] will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.
“I want to warn the war criminals and those who support this entity before it’s too late to stop the crimes against civilians in Gaza, because it might be too late in few hours.”
As thousands of Palestinians are dying amidst the war, Hamas continues to use its citizens as shields across the enclave, with footage released by analysts showing the terror group blocking safe passage for Gaza’s heading south after warnings from the IDF of imminent air strikes on military targets.
On Sunday, a senior Israeli official claimed Iran is trying to open a second war front by deploying weapons in or through Syria. Responding to a post of the X social-media platform that posited such a scenario, Joshua Zarka, head of strategic affairs for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the country is determined to prevent a multi-fronted assault.
It comes in the wake of attacks on Aleppo and Damascus airports last week. While Israel does not comment on such operations, it is widely believed it was aimed to prevent the transfer of Iranian weapons to its proxies in Syria.
While nations including the US has said there are no clear signs that Iran is behind the war, the State Department released information claiming the regime funds Hamas with at least $100 million per year, in addition to operational and weapons support.
In 2019, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in partnership with the Sultanate of Oman, designated financial facilitators responsible for moving tens of millions of dollars between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and HAMAS’s operational arm, the Izz-Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza.
Over recent months, a stream of meetings between Tehran and its Palestinian proxies in addition to Hezbollah in Lebanon have taken place across the region.
Both President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have both come out in praising Operation Al Aqsa Storm which last week saw hundreds of Hamas militants enter Israel by land, sea and air on Saturday morning, accompanied by a bombardment of thousands of rockets.
Last week, Raisi said: "Their resistance in this glorious operation is exemplary. The determination of the young Palestinians has created a great epic and demonstrated that oppressing a nation, displacing people, and occupying their land may last for a while, but it infuriates the oppressed people, and they are no longer willing to endure the oppression. I hope God helps the fighters in liberating their land.”
The US and UK have moved warships to the region and have vowed unequivocal military support to Israel as it fights against the terror group, deterring further involvement from Iran and its proxies.
Last week in talks with Jewish community leaders, Biden said: "We moved the US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and we are sending more fighter jets to that region, and made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful.”