The leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah met with the deputy leader of the Islamist Hamas organization Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. During their meeting, the two discussed their joint aspiration to bring about Israel’s destruction. Nasrallah also offered his condolences to Al-Arouri for the death of the Palestinian militants that were killed in the attack tunnel that collapsed on the Gaza border with Israel, as a result of an Israeli operation. Al-Arouri, who resides in Lebanon after getting expelled from Turkey and Qatar for his pro-Iranian position, is considered to be the man behind the rapprochement between Tehran and Hamas, and has led two Hamas delegations to the Islamic Republic in the past three months.
Meanwhile, Nasrallah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem commented on the tunnel explosion in Gaza during an event in Beirut, saying “Israel has the ability to determine when the war would start, but not how it would end.” Hezbollah’s deputy leader further declared that “Israel should know that if it decides to start a war, its home front and buildings would be exposed to the missiles of the resistance,” as he put it.