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Lebanon’s Hizbollah militant group said it was entering a “new and escalating phase” in its battle with Israel, hours after Israel announced the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
In a defiant statement on Friday, Hizbollah boasted of its military achievements against the Israel Defense Forces in southern Lebanon and said it was shifting to “a new and escalating phase in its confrontation” with Israel, which would become apparent in the coming days.
Hizbollah began launching rockets towards Israel from Lebanon the day after Hamas’s deadly October 7 2023 assault on southern Israel “in solidarity” with Gaza.
For much of the past year, the conflict was confined to tit-for-tat exchanges along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, which displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides.
But late last month, after crushing most resistance from Hamas in Gaza, Israel began intensifying its campaign against Hizbollah in Lebanon.
On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, delivered a rare rebuke to Iran, which backs Hizbollah, over comments by a senior Iranian official in the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The official said Tehran would be ready to help negotiate with France — which is seeking to mediate — for a resolution to the conflict in Lebanon.
The comments amounted to “blatant interference in Lebanese affairs”, Mikati said in a post on X, adding that they were an attempt “to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon”.
Criticism of Iran by Lebanese officials is rare, as Tehran’s shadow looms large over Lebanon, given its close ties with and support for Hizbollah, which is fighting Israel.
Separately on Friday, Hamas confirmed Sinwar’s death. Israel said on Thursday it had killed the Hamas leader in Gaza when he was spotted by chance on Wednesday by its forces in the Rafah area in the south of the enclave.
“Sinwar’s death and the deaths of other leaders . . . only makes our movement stronger and more committed to pushing on,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau.
He added that the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza would not be returned until Israeli forces withdraw from the strip, Palestinian detainees are released from Israeli custody, and the “aggression” against the besieged enclave stops.
Sinwar was the architect of last year’s October 7 attack, when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. The assault triggered the deadliest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sinwar’s death marked a pivotal moment in the year of fighting, delivering a severe blow to the Palestinian militant group and a symbolic victory to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu hailed Sinwar’s killing as a “victory of good over evil” and “the beginning of the day after Hamas” rule in Gaza, adding that militants still holding the 101 remaining Israeli hostages now had an opportunity to release them and be allowed to live.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza . . . The return of our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our goals and it brings the end of the war closer,” Netanyahu said.
Western leaders also saw it as an opening to push forward stalled efforts to end the conflict, which has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s health authorities.
US President Joe Biden said news of Sinwar’s death had brought a “good day” for Israel, and there was now an opportunity for a political settlement that provides “a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
Israel intensified its campaign against Hizbollah late last month, launching thousands of air strikes which have destroyed swaths of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed much of the group’s senior leadership, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.
It also launched a ground invasion, sending troops into southern Lebanon more than two weeks ago, who continue to clash with Hizbollah fighters along the frontier.
The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said on Friday that it has come under several “deliberate” attacks by Israeli troops in recent days, including one incident in which Israeli forces penetrated a UN base for 45 minutes.
Israel has yet to retaliate for an October 1 ballistic missile attack by Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hizbollah, with Israeli leaders vowing a “severe” response directly against the Islamic republic.
Additional reporting by Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in London
