As the Israeli military gears up for a ground offensive to eliminate Hamas leadership and free hostages, Iran has threatened to unleash “a huge earthquake” if Israel continues strikes on terrorist targets in Gaza.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Saturday declared that Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy terrorist group Hezbollah was prepared to attack Israel from the north if counter-terrorist operations against Hamas continue.
The term “earthquake” is significant, since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei used the same phrase to describe last Saturday’s terror attack on Israel.
“We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack,” Khamenei said last week in his first televised speech since the mass-murder of Israelis at the hands of Hamas terrorists. “This destructive earthquake (Hamas’ terror attack) has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily,” he boasted.
Last week’s cross-border attack by Hamas, a terrorist group funded and armed by Hamas, killed more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians. The terrorist infiltrators took up to 200 hostages into Gaza, including women, children, and the elderly.
The remarks come as Iranian foreign minister holds talks with the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iran-sponsored terrorist groups–all part of a terrorist axis created by Tehran to encircle Israel.
The top Iranian envoy’s threat was followed by increased attacks by Hezbollah into northern Israel. The Jerusalem Post on Sunday morning reported the “firing of rockets, attempted invasions, and other tension on the northern border.”
The Associated Press reported the latest Iranian threat:
Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible. (…)Amirabdollahian discussed in Beirut on Saturday the situation in Gaza and the region with the top Hamas official in exile, Saleh Arouri, and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, Ziad Nakhaleh, according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV. (…)Amirabdollahian said he met Friday with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who briefed him on the group’s conditions in Lebanon.“I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place,” Amirabdollahian said. “Any step the resistance (Hezbollah) will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.”https://twitter.com/daniel_c_roth/status/1712821196901789961
Israeli military, expecting Hezbollah’s entry into the conflict, has taken counter-measures–evacuating civilians along the northern border with Lebanon and creating a 4-kilometer-wide security zone to repel terrorist attacks and intrusions.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
The IDF on Sunday created a four-kilometer security zone in northern Israel to keep any civilians who do not live in the area out until further notice.It said this was necessary after the continued firing of rockets, attempted invasions, and other tension on the northern border.Further, the IDF said that those within two kilometers of the border should remain in bomb shelters and safe rooms.Residents of the northern moshav were told to seek shelter immediately. Later, the Kiryat Shmona municipality also told the border city’s residents to seek shelter following exchanges of fire on the border.
Days after the IDF urged Gazans to evacuate the northern part of the Hamas-controlled territory ahead of a possible ground offensive, the terrorist group is preventing civilians from leaving the zone.
Hamas has put up roadblocks on the evacuation routes designated by the Israeli military. The IDF has been sending text messages, dropping leaflets with maps telling civilians to leave certain areas.
“On Friday, the IDF published instructions to residents of northern Gaza, directing them to evacuate to southern Gaza due to planned military operations in Gaza City in northern Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Leaflets were also dropped over the Gaza Strip with the instructions and a map was published showing which roads would be safe to use for evacuation.”
Hamas, who needs Gaza residents as human shields, has been ordering civilians to ignore IDF warnings and stay in their homes. Meanwhile, Hamas terrorists are hiding in tunnels and in residential areas to maximize civilian causalities if Israel goes ahead with a ground offensive to eliminate terrorist culprits and to rescue hostages.
Hamas’ measures to trap civilians in the battle zones comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed to step up the military operation. “You ready for the next stage? The next stage is coming,” the prime minister told troops gathered along the Gaza border.
The Times of Israel reported:
The Israel Defense Forces says the Hamas terror group is preventing Palestinians from evacuating the northern part of the Gaza Strip.The IDF has warned Gaza residents in the northern part of the Strip to evacuate amid preparations for an expected ground incursion or a stepped-up offensive. The area is home to about 1 million people.The military says it has identified hundreds of thousands of Palestinians moving south, but many are getting stuck in traffic caused by Hamas roadblocks.“Hamas is making it difficult for the residents of the Gaza Strip to move on main roads, and prevents the passage of vehicles on these roads,” the IDF says.The military releases a video showing heavy traffic in the Gaza Strip, which it says is caused by Hamas roadblocks.“We see an active effort by Hamas to block and prevent the population from going south. Hamas wants to show the world that it has casualties and dead,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says in a press conference.“We continue to urge the residents of Gaza City, go south… Hamas wants you as human shields… This is for your personal safety,” Hagari adds. “We are going to attack very widely in Gaza City in the near future.”
The IDF on Sunday eliminated one of leading culprits who led last Saturday’s terror attack.
The Times of Israel reported:
The military on Sunday said it killed another commander in Hamas’s commando forces who led the murderous attacks on southern Israeli communities last weekend, as Israel moved to evacuate a border city ahead of the Israel Defense Forces’ expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. (…)The IDF said Billal al-Qedra, the commander of the so-called Nukhba unit’s southern Khan Younis battalion, was killed in an airstrike following intelligence efforts by the Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence Directorate.“He was responsible for the murderous raid in Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz,” the IDF said.
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