Terror groups at Israel’s borders, north and south, threaten the Jewish state following its weekend confrontation with Syria and Iran.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Saturday evening that it was raising its level of alert to “defend the Palestinian people from any Israeli aggression,” following the violence on Israel’s northern border over the weekend.
Hamas spokesman Abu-Obeida tweeted that “the [Qassam] Brigades have raised the level of alert to protect our people and respond to any Zionist aggression in the light of the ongoing events taking place in northern occupied Palestine.”
Responding to a barrage of Iranian anti-aircraft missiles launched from Syria over Israeli territory early Saturday morning, the Israeli Air Force conducted the largest strike on Syria since the First Lebanon War, hitting a mobile Iranian control center that had sent a drone into Israeli airspace and then striking 12 targets in the country.
Commenting on the downing of an Israeli F-16 on its way back from striking Syria, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it was “a natural response to the continuous Israeli aggression on the Syrian lands.”
“It is the right of all nations to defend their lands and their own security and stability in case they were targeted by any occupation,” he asserted.
Iran warns of ‘hell for Zionists’
The lieutenant commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warned of “a hell that Iran could create for Zionists.” IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Salami recommended that Israel “abandon the dream of conquering lands from ‘the river to the sea.'”
The IRCG, which is entrusted with Iran’s foreign espionage and sabotage activities, has forces in Syria, which command a total of 82,000 troops.
Chiming in, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group “strongly” condemned Israel’s “continued acts of aggression against Syria’s military and civilian structures.”
A Hezbollah statement “commended” the downing of an Israeli F-16 jet by the Syrian air defense systems, saying it marked the “start of a new strategic phase” that would limit Israeli violations of the Syrian airspace.
Hezbollah repeated a widespread claim that Israel was helping Sunni rebels in Syria, saying it “deplored the enemy’s support of terrorism and Takfiri groups,” while assuring that the latest developments demonstrate that “old equations have categorically fallen.”
The statement praised “the vigilance of the Syrian army and its valiant response to shoot down the hostile Israeli aircraft,” reiterating the Hezbollah’s “firm and strong support to the Syrian people in defending their land, sovereignty and legitimate rights.”