▲ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered his first public sermon in four years yesterday, in which he defended this week’s missile attack on Israel, which deepened fears of a regional war, and praised the defiance of the allies.Photo from the Iranian government via AFP
Reuters, Sputnik, Europa Press and Xinhua
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 5, 2024, p. 17
Tehran. The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday defended the missile offensive against Israel, considering it the least of punishmentsand promised that his allies in the Middle East will continue fighting, while stating that Tel Aviv he doesn’t have much time leftand rated as legitimate the attack launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimateKhamenei said, referring to Tuesday’s 200-missile attack on Israel. Khamenei spoke before thousands of worshipers at the Imam Khomeini Mosque in Tehran, Deutsche Welle reported.
Every blow to the Zionist regime is a service to all humanitystated in a speech in which he assured: If necessary, we will hit the Zionist regime again in the futurealthough We will not hesitate or rush. We will do what is sensible.
He stressed that Every nation has the right to defend its country and territory against the aggressor.referring to the assassinations of Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, an Iranian general in Israeli strikes in Beirut on Saturday, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July in Tehran. Furthermore, he called on the Muslim world to unite against the enemy, “whose policy is ‘divide and rule.’ “The policy of the Quran is that Muslim nations must be united,” he said, stressing that the Iran’s enemy is the enemy of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Yemen. He also blamed the United States for tensions in the Middle East.
Khamenei’s statement, during prayers in Tehran, the first he has led in the last four years, came after Israel carried out a series of massive air offensives overnight, which hit suburbs of Beirut and cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, where tens of thousands of people flee the bombings of Tel Aviv.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government believes that Hashem Safieddine, a Lebanese Shiite cleric considered the heir to Nasrallah’s position as head of Hezbollah, died in the airstrikes the day before in Beirut, state media reported. Senior Israeli officials said it was unlikely he survived the attack; However, there are no official statements in this regard.
Israeli forces claimed to have eliminated some 250 Hezbollah fighters, as well as more than 2,000 of the group’s infrastructure in the four days since the start of the ground invasion of Lebanon.
According to Lebanese authorities, 2,000 people have been murdered throughout the country, including 127 children and 261 women in recent weeks. The offensive in the suburbs of Beirut continued last night.
Tel Aviv reported that Hezbollah yesterday launched nearly 180 missiles in several attacks against the north of the country.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told the Ynet portal: We carried out very powerful bombings against Hezbollah, one after another, and we will continue to have surprises for them.
Flammable infrastructure
The deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Ali Fadavi, warned that the Islamic republic will attack all of Israel’s refineries and gas fields if it make a mistakethe semi-official Iranian news agency SNN reported.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, affirmed that he supports the ceasefire in Lebanon as long as it is proclaimed in a manner simultaneous to a definitive truce in the Gaza Strip, and reiterated its support for Hezbollah.
On the Palestinian front, Israeli forces bombed a well-known cafe in the Al Hamam neighborhood of Tulkarem, West Bank, which the military said was targeting fighters, but also killed a family of four, including two children. , his relatives informed the Ap agency.
The attack hit a three-story building in the Tulkarem refugee camp late Thursday, setting it on fire, destroying the popular cafe and killing at least 18 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It was the deadliest attack in the reoccupied West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas almost a year ago.
Islamic Resistance Offensive
A drone attack by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq against an Israeli army military base in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights region left two soldiers dead and 23 soldiers injured, reported The Times of Israel.
Meanwhile, the US military said it carried out 15 strikes against targets linked to armed Houthi rebels in three cities in Yemen, where residents reported explosions at military posts and even an airport; The US bombings hit three Yemeni cities, Dhamar, the southeast of Al Bayda province, including the capital Sanaa and the port of Hodeida. The Houthis have been in open solidarity with Gaza for a year.