Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani on Tuesday made his first public appearance in Beirut since he was seriously wounded in the face and hands in the first of two waves of Israeli attacks involving exploding devices in mid-September.
Amani returned to Lebanon over the weekend after undergoing medical treatment in Iran, and on Tuesday visited the scene south of Beirut where Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in a massive Israeli strike on his underground bunker.
The wide-scale, coordinated explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies held by Hezbollah members on September 17 and 18 dealt a massive blow to the Iran-backed terror group and kicked off an Israeli campaign that continued with the assassination of almost all of Hezbollah’s leadership, including Nasrallah, and a limited Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
The device explosions came hours after Israel designated the halting of the terror group’s cross-border attacks as one of its main war goals. At least 39 people were killed in the blasts, and Lebanon said nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, for which Israel officially took responsibility last month. A Hezbollah official told Reuters a week after the attacks that some 1,500 of its fighters were put out of commission due to their injuries — including Amani — with many having been blinded or had their hands blown off.
Speaking on Tuesday about the strike that killed Nasrallah and other top commanders from the terror group, as well as a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Amani said Israel should be awarded “the highest medal for sabotage, terrorism, blood and the killing of civilians.”
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His visit to Beirut came almost a week after a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, halting 14 months of violence.
Hezbollah started the war with Israel on October 8 last year, launching near-daily rocket and drone attacks at northern Israel, unprovoked, and forcing some 60,000 residents to evacuate. The terror group said it was doing so in solidarity with Hamas, one day after its ally launched a devastating attack on Israel’s south. Both terror groups are supported by Iran and have long sought the destruction of Israel.
The attacks on Israel from Lebanon since October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 45 civilians. In addition, 76 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Source » timesofisrael