07.15.2006

A source within the Palestinian Authority revealed Friday that Fatah and Hamas factions are allied with Hizbullah terrorists. The connection is not new, said the source, who asked to remain unnamed.

IDF sources added that Iran manufactured and supplied Hizbullah with the long-range rockets that have been hitting Haifa and other areas since Thursday.

"The Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, and now its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, have affirmed commitment to aiding the Palestinians against Israeli attacks," the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported Thursday.

A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that the Hizbullah attacks were a "message and a mortal blow to Israel."

In a statement released by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the spokesman thanked Hizbullah and noted that Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists are also working together.

Israeli military sources examined a Katyusha rocket that exploded in Haifa on Thursday night and said it had been manufactured in Iran. Hizbullah denied that its terrorists had fired the missile, but experts' examinations revealed that it was the same kind of rocket that Hizbullah terrorists fired near Carmiel, a city several miles southeast of Haifa.

Iran has promised to pay for repairs resulting from Israel's bombing key targets in Lebanon as they work quickly to prevent Hizbullah terrorists from transferring the kidnapped IDF soldiers to Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also promised Syrian President Bashar Assad that an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the Muslim world and would bring a "fierce response."

Israel and the United States have openly blamed Iran and Syria for the Hizbullah war on northern Israel.

"The historical ties between Iran and Hizbullah are well known, and Syria also has very close ties to Hizbullah," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "Again, there's a long history there and it's well known," he reiterated to reporters at a news conference this week. He added that Syria "has a very particular responsibility" for peace in the Middle East -- as well as for bringing about the release of two IDF soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists Wednesday morning.

McCormack said there was a clear connection between last month's kidnapping of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Hamas terrorists, and the Hizbullah attack on northern Israel and the abductions of two Israeli soldiers.

"If you look at these actions, these are deliberate attempts to try to escalate tensions in the region," he said. "Look at the timing...very clearly these are individuals here that are seeking to provoke a negative reaction in the region."

Hamas is headquartered in Damascus, and the historical links between Hizbullah, Syria and Iran are will known, McCormack added. He said that Syria is "hosting terrorist organizations in their capital...and is trying to determine for people living in the Palestinian Authority areas and the people of Lebanon what kind of future they're going to have."

He added, "You have a terrorist organization that is heading the government of the Palestinian Authority that is not a partner for peace."

Arutz Sheva

Nasrallah: We are ready for an open war
07.15.2006

Shortly before a strike on a Navy gun ship, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a telephone call to Hizbullah media outlets that Israel's ongoing operations in Lebanon were a campaign of revenge over its "defeat," as he referred to the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

"You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war," Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a taped statement. He vowed to hit even deeper into Israel with rockets.

Nasrallah was responding to growing criticism over the Hizbullah cross-border attack on Wednesday that spurred the Israeli response.

He also promised that IDF naval ships maintaining a sea blockade on Lebanese ports would be destroyed and called on the Lebanese people to join forces against Israel.

The comments came after Hizbullah threatened to strike Haifa and beyond with improved Katyusha rockets in response to the destruction of Hizbullah headquarters in southern Beirut and Nasrallah's private residence.

In an urgent flash, the organization's al-Manar TV station said the building housing Hizbullah's leadership was destroyed. It did not elaborate, nor say whether there were any casualties.

It is generally known that Nasrallah, whose movements are treated with a high level of secrecy, moves from one place to another, particularly during the Israeli offensive.

Earlier Friday evening, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with the "Group of Seven" security-related cabinet advisors ended with the prime minister approving a new list of targets for ongoing IDF operations in Lebanon.

On Friday afternoon, IDF warplanes renewed attacks on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya, targeting a radio station belonging to the Hizbullah terror organization, Hizbullah said.

The organization's Al-Manar TV reported that Israeli warplanes fired a missile in the vicinity of the Al-Nour station in the Haret Hreik neighborhood south of Beirut but missed the facility and struck an apartment in a residential building instead. There was no immediate word on casualties, and the station remained on the air.

It was the second time Friday that IAF planes targeted residential neighborhoods in south Beirut, a stronghold of the Shi'ite Muslim Hizbullah's leadership. Israeli planes earlier rained missiles on roads in the suburbs, knocking down an overpass and damaging another.

The IDF also continued its bombardment of southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, bombing two bridges over the Hazharani river as well as a Hizbullah anti-aircraft missile base and a fuel depot in Talusia.

Earlier on Friday, IDF forces foiled an infiltration attempt by Hizbullah operatives near an IDF post close to Zar'it on the northern border on Friday.

Troops opened fire towards the infiltrators and clashes erupted in the area.

Meanwhile, IAF fighter-bombers blasted Beirut International Airport in the third attack on the nation's sole international facility since the military offensive was launched against Lebanon three days ago.

Airport officials said one of the three runways was hit with two missiles and Lebanese eyewitnesses reported that a nearby residential building was struck in the raid. No casualties were reported.

About an hour before Friday's raid, the five remaining Airbus jets belonging to the national carrier Middle East Airlines flew to Amman for safety reasons, officials said.

Early Friday, an Israeli plane also fired a missile at a fuel storage tank for the power station at Jiye on the Mediterranean coast in central Lebanon, just north of the port city of Sidon, witnesses said.

The attack started a huge fire in the area, about 20 miles south of the Lebanese capital, but the power station itself was not hit. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Jerusalem Post