Hezbollah leader says war with Israel has entered 'new phase' after killings of top militant figures
CTV
Hezbollah's leader warned Thursday that the conflict with Israel has entered a 'new phase,' as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut.
Hezbollah's leader warned Thursday that the conflict with Israel has entered a "new phase," as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut.
Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran's supreme leader prayed over the body of Hamas' political leader, who was killed in a presumed Israeli assassination.
The back-to-back killings have increased fears of an escalation into a wider war, leaving the region waiting to see how Iran and ally Hezbollah will respond. Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel for the strike that killed Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's assassination, but comments by Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stopped short of an outright denial.
"There was no additional airstrike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night," he said Thursday, fuelling speculation that Israel could have used other means to kill Haniyeh.
Israel did confirm it carried out the strike Tuesday in Beirut that killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur, along with an Iranian military adviser and at least five civilians. Israel said Shukur was behind a rocket attack days earlier that hit a soccer field in the Israeli-held Golan Heights, killing 12 children. Hezbollah denied being behind that strike, a denial that Nasrallah reiterated.
In a speech via video link to mourners gathered with Shukur's coffin at an auditorium in a Beirut suburb, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said, "We ... have entered a new phase that is different from the previous period."
