Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel a ‘message’ to new PM, says Iranian commander

Hezbollah’s latest rocket fire on Israel from Lebanon was a “message” to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who was sworn in in June, “that the equation of response has not changed” and that Israel does not set the agenda in the region, said Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami on Saturday.

Salami made the comments to Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem on Saturday during a meeting between the two in Tehran, according to Iranian media.

The meeting came a day after Hezbollah fired 19 rockets at Israel in the heaviest barrage since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

A photo of Salami and Qassem was published on Saturday on the IRGC’s Telegram channel. Qassem was in Tehran for the inauguration of ultra-conservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. At his inauguration ceremony on Thursday, both Qassem and Hamas terror group chief Ismail Haniyeh could be seen in the audience.

On Saturday, Salami also told Qassem during the meeting that “the capacities are ready for the collapse of the Zionist regime,” according to Iranian state-linked media Tehran Times.

Salami also stressed (Arabic) the continued support of Iran for “the resistance” in Lebanon.

Tensions on Israel’s northern border have escalated dramatically in recent days.

On Friday, Hezbollah fired a barrage of nineteen 122mm rockets into northern Israel, sending residents in a number of towns in the Golan Heights and Galilee scrambling to shelters. The terror group immediately took responsibility for the rocket fire.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah in Lebanon, met this evening with IRGC Commander Major General Hossein Salami. pic.twitter.com/1xJI0yejzL

— Tehran Times (@TehranTimes79) August 7, 2021
Israel responded with artillery strikes. Witnesses reported artillery fire by Israeli forces on the Lebanese side of Shebaa Farms and outside the town of Kfar Shouba after the attack.

Hezbollah also released a video of the assault showing a mobile rocket launcher maneuvering into position, raising the launcher and firing the salvo of rockets at Israel.

Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, rockets fired from Lebanese territory landed in northern Israel, sparking fast-spreading blazes; Israel blamed Palestinian terror groups and responded with airstrikes that targeted open areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning, the first to be publicly acknowledged by Jerusalem since 2014.

On Friday, Qassem told reporters that although the group did not believe it was heading towards an escalation with Israel, they were “prepared to respond” should Israel strike Lebanese territory again.

The United States, meanwhile, urged Lebanon’s government to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel

A Shiite terror organization backed by Iran, Hezbollah has long exerted a powerful role in Lebanon, which is wracked by an economic meltdown and has only had a caretaker government for nearly a year.