Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Hezbollah commandos’ video threatens Israel, warns of ‘disaster from the north’

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group on Monday released a video showing members of its elite commando unit in training and firing weapons at targets representing Israel, in a pointed warning to the Jewish state.
In the video clip, members of the Lebanese group’s Radwan Unit are shown demonstrating their shooting and unarmed combat skills. Some of the shooting targets have a Star of David printed on them, the traditional symbol of the Jewish people and the icon at the center of the Israeli national flag.
The video was shared on social media accounts associated with Iran and its proxies, the Ynet website reported. It was also posted on YouTube, but later removed for violating its standards.
At the end of the video, text in Hebrew and English appears with a quote from Surah 9:5 of the Quran reading: “Then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them. And sit and wait for them in every place of ambush.”
The quote is followed by another, from the Bible, also in Hebrew and English, from Jeremiah 1:14, reading, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.”
Approximately eight years ago, Hezbollah created its special forces Radwan Unit which was specifically tasked with crossing into Israel in future conflicts and causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible, both for the sake of the destruction itself and for the “symbolism” of having troops carry out attacks inside the Jewish state.
In December 2018, the IDF launched Operation Northern Shield, an effort to locate and destroy tunnels dug by Hezbollah into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, apparently for this purpose. In total, the military said it found six such passages and rendered them inoperable — either using explosives or filling them with concrete — last year.
This week also marked 20 years since Israel’s withdrawal from its self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon.
On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that all Jews must leave Israel, saying the whole region, “from the river to the sea,” is the property of the Palestinians.
“While we never said we wanted to throw anyone into the sea, those who flocked to Palestine must leave,” the head of the Lebanese terror organization said in a speech to mark Quds Day.
Quds Day, which Iran has marked since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is usually commemorated with regime-orchestrated demonstrations across Iran and the Arab world against Israel and expressing support for the Palestinians. It is held on the last Friday of Ramadan, which this year is May 22. This year the Iranian and Israeli commemorations of Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the capture of the eastern part of the capital during the 1967 Six Day War, fell on the same day.
Due to coronavirus outbreak there were no major parades, as is usually the case, in either country.