The Iranian government is warning Hezbollah is hellbent on revenge and will likely focus its retribution on civilian targets deeper into Israel following Tuesday’s assassination of Fuad Shukr, the Tehran-backed terror group’s most senior military commander.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed that Israel would receive “a severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner” for killing Shukr in Beirut.
The IRG added, in a statement issued Saturday, Hezbollah will no longer restrict its attacks to military locations.
It further noted Tuesday’s strike against Shukr also killed five civilians, and was “supported by the United States.”
In response, the US has deployed additional warships and fighter jets to the region, to help defend Israel against any future Hezbollah aggressions.
On Wednesday, just hours after Shukr’s death, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was also killed by a bomb that’d been smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying two months prior.
Iranian security agents were commissioned by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, to plant the explosive.
A dozen others were killed in that explosion.
Meanwhile, two Israeli airstrikes carried out in the West Bank Saturday reportedly killed nine Palestinian militants, including senior Hezbollah terrorist Ali Nazih Abed Ali, according to reports.
The Israeli army said a vehicle was struck outside the city of Tulkarem, killing five.
The army alleges all five men were on their way to carry out a terrorist attack. Also on Saturday, four other Palestinian militants were killed in that same region, after firing on Israeli troops.
In response to the escalating tensions in the Middle East, France and Austria are among the countries that’ve blocked all flights to and from Israel and Beirut until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a high-level Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo, Egypt, today to continue talks focused on cementing a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent representatives from his office to the talks, which will be overseen by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Netanyahu wants an international embargo on weapons transfers from Southern Gaza to the north as a condition of any peace deal.
With Post wires
