Nasrallah declares ‘new phase’ of war, vows ‘inevitable’ response to Israeli attack on Beirut

In a strident speech on August 1, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said that the fighting with Israel has “entered a new phase” that goes “beyond supporting Gaza,” vowing an “inevitable” response to Israel’s Beirut bombing.

BY QASSAM MUADDI, MONDOWEISS, AUGUST 1, 2024

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Casualties 

• 39,480 + killed* and at least 91,128 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 28,903 Palestinians have been fully identified, and around 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.*
• 594+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank including eastern Jerusalem. These include 138 children.**
• Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
• 690 Israeli soldiers have been recognized as killed, and 4096 as wounded by the Israeli army since October 7.***

* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on July 31, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on July 30, this is the latest figure.

*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000 including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.

Key Developments 

• Israel has killed 156 Palestinians and wounded 666 across Gaza since Monday, July 29, raising the death toll since October 7 to 39,480 and the number of wounded to 91,128, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
• Israel assassinates senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr on Tuesday night in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district.
• Israel assassinates head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday morning in Tehran; Hanieh receives state funeral in Tehran on Thursday, to be buried in Qatar on same day.
• In televised address on Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah announces “new phase” in fighting with Israel after Beirut bombing and Shukr assassination.
• Speaker of Iranian parliament says Israel made  “strategic mistake” by killing Haniyeh; Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and Iranian Revolutionary Guard pledge revenge.
• Israel claims that Israeli strike on Mawasi last month successfully killed head of Hamas military wing Muhammad al-Deif.
• Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayyeh says assassination of Ismail Haniyeh provoked anger of all Muslim nations.
• Blinken says Middle East heading toward more conflict; ceasefire in Gaza can bring calm between Lebanon and Israel.
• Financial Times quotes unnamed Western diplomat saying several Western countries are pressuring Iran to avoid responding to Haniyeh assassination to prevent regional war; future of Middle East conflict depends more on Iran’s choices than Israel’s.
• Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet, orders Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister, not to travel or move without authorization.
• Israel reported to have informed Iran and Hezbollah of its readiness for a war.
• Iran representative at UN Security Council accuses U.S. of participating in Haniyeh assassination, says Israel could not have done it without U.S. intelligence assistance.
• Marking 300 days of war, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says “all the government can offer is one war after the other.”
• Israeli protesters block main highway in Tel Aviv demanding ceasefire and prisoners’ exchange deal.
• Two U.S. airliners cancel flights to and from Lebanon.
• Israel kills Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in airstrike on Gaza City, raising number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since October 7 to 165.
• Palestinians observe general strike in all West Bank cities on Wednesday in mourning over Haniyeh assassination, take part in several marches.
• One Israeli wounded in stabbing and shooting attack in Hebron in southern West Bank, Wednesday. Israeli army says attacker arrested.

Ismail Haniyeh receives state funeral in Tehran, to be buried in Qatar 

On Wednesday morning, Hamas announced that the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in an Israeli strike on his place of residence in Tehran. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei also accused Israel of the assassination, adding that it “will be severely punished.” The Iranian Revolutionary Guard also accused Israel of the attack in a statement, vowing that “the Zionist regime will face a harsh response from the resistance axis and especially Iran.”

Israel, for its part, did not officially claim responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing, although its heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, celebrated the assassination, commenting that “this is the correct way to cleanse the world,” while Netanyahu said that Israel had dealt a heavy blow “to the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas” in a televised speech on Wednesday. The Israeli public broadcaster also said that the assassination occurred by means of a missile launched from outside of Iranian territory.

Haniyeh is the highest-ranking Hamas figure to be assassinated since the beginning of the current war. He was also heading the ceasefire negotiations on Hamas’s behalf in recent months.

Israel assassinates head of Hamas political bureau amid regional escalation

On Thursday, Hanyeh’s body received an official and popular funeral in Tehran in the presence of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. At the funeral, the speaker of the Iranian parliament Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Israel “has committed a strategic mistake,” and that Iran “has the right to respond in the right time and place.” Iran’s supreme leader had pledged on Wednesday a “harsh punishment” for Israel.

Haniyeh’s body arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday afternoon, where he is scheduled to receive a second funeral and be laid to rest.

On Thursday, several media outlets reported that European countries and the U.S. are pressuring Iran not to respond or to limit its response to Haniyeh’s assassination to a symbolic reprisal.

Meanwhile, Iran’s representative at the UN Security Council accused the U.S. of taking part in the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, remarking that Israel could not have carried out the attack without U.S. intelligence assistance. For its part, the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that “this [attack] is not something we were aware of or involved in.”

On Thursday, Israeli media reported that the Israeli internal security service, the Shin Bet, ordered all Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, not to travel without authorization.

The real reason Israel is assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and why it won’t stop the resistance

Nasrallah pledges ‘real response’ to Beirut attack, will not be ‘symbolic’

The Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, pledged on Thursday “a real, not a symbolic” response to the Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern Dahiya neighborhood on Tuesday, which resulted in the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr.

Nasrallah spoke at the funeral of Shukr in Beirut, where he commented on the reported pressures of Western countries on Hezbollah to limit its response to a “symbolic” reprisal in order to avoid a major war. Nasrallah declared that “what is happening has now moved beyond supporting the [Gaza] front, but is now a major, open battle whose fields are Gaza, southern Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Iran.” He added that “the pressure to stop our support of the fronts will not work,” asserting that “the enemy does not know what red lines it has crossed: we have entered a new phase.”

Nasrallah asserted that Israel had crossed three red lines: the targeting of a civilian building, which caused civilian casualties, the attack on the southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital, and the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander.

“The surrender of the resistance’s support of the fronts is not on the table, since the daily killing of children in Gaza has not stopped,” Nasrallah said in the speech. “Whoever is interested in preventing the region from entering open war should know that the only solution is the end of the aggression on Gaza.”

Following Nasrallah’s speech, Netanyahu said that Israel would exact a heavy price against “whoever attacks us.” Israeli media reported that the Israeli government ordered the emptying of several military bases in the north and that the Israeli army had canceled all weekend vacations for its staff.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a series of cross-border attacks since October 8 of last year. Nasrallah has repeatedly affirmed that the purpose of the Lebanese front was to support Gaza up until the attack on Beirut.