Israel-Palestine live: Israel’s response to South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ ends

Hassan Nasrallah said Israel’s assassination of Saleh al-Arouri “will not go unpunished” and that the Lebanese group will not be deterred by Israel.

“What happened yesterday was very serious,” Nasrallah said.

“Yesterday’s crime is blatant, is serious. This serious crime will not go unanswered or unpunished."

Nasrallah said only “children and cowards” believe that Israel’s assassination of Arouri was not a strike against Hezbollah, but limited to Hamas.

“If the enemy decides to wage war against Lebanon, our combat will have no limits”

“We do not fear war. We do not hesitate to engage in combat,” he said.

Nasrallah said France, the US, the UK, and the Netherlands all warned Hezbollah not to open a second front against Israel, but the group was not deterred.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel assassinated Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut because they have failed to secure victory in Gaza.

“Last night, they were trying to present an image of victory with the treacherous assassination of Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri. But in Gaza where is it?”

Nasrallah also said that Americans are killing Palestinians in Gaza.

“It is the Americans who are preventing the end of the war in Gaza,” he said.

Hassan Nasrallah said the Hamas-led 7 October attack against Israel struck a blow to normalisation.

“The Israelis now have clarity that they are facing a people that will not forget its land or its history or its present or its sanctities,” Nasrallah said.

Stil, Hezbollah’s leader also said that Israel’s response to the war have brought a dangerous challenge to resistance groups.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah trumpeted his group’s role keeping Israel pinned down on a second front along its northern border amid the war in Gaza. 

Nasrallah said Hezbollah members were dying every day, fighting against Israel.

He explained that his remarks in November that Hezbollah did not have advance knowledge of the Hamas-led 7 October attack were not intended to distance the Lebanese group from the attack.

Nasrallah also said that “axis of resistance” groups are not working directly at the request of Iran, but have their own shared goals and interests.

He also praised the Houthi’s maritime attacks in the Red Sea.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Qassam Soleimani was the “central figure” building the “axis of resistance” across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Soleimani was commander of Iran's elite Qud's Force. He was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called assassinated Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri “a leading Jihadi”, in a highly anticipated speech on Wednesday.

He expressed condolences to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and the people of Palestine for the death. Nasrallah also cited Arouri's mother who expressed pride in her assassinated son's "martyrdom". 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressed condolences to the families of more than 100 people killed in “terrorist attacks” at a ceremony in Iran to mark the death of the military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Kerman, Iran.

Nasrallah's highly anticipated speech comes as all eyes are on the Lebanon-based group to see how it responds to Israel's assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a southern Beirut suburb Hezbollah controls. 

Israel used guided missiles fired from a warplane to kill senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday,  a Lebanese security official told the AFP.

Arouri was killed by a suspected Israeli strike on a residential home in southern Beirut along with 6 other Hamas members.

"Arouri was killed in strikes using guided missiles which were launched by an Israeli warplane," the official said, requesting anonymity because of security concerns. 

"A drone could not have carried out such a precise strike," said the official with knowledge of the official Lebanese investigation into Arouri's killing.

According to the official, the guided missiles used in the attack weigh around 100 kilos (220 pounds), making them too heavy to have been fired by a drone.

Six missiles were used in Tuesday's attack, four of which exploded, the official said.

Two of the missiles that detonated pierced through two floors and exploded in a room where Arouri was holding a meeting with other Hamas officials, the source added.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has agreed to hold a hearing next week to discuss South Africa’s request for an urgent ruling on genocide charges against Israel for its military offensive on Gaza.

The hearing is scheduled for January 11 and 12 at the United Nations court. 

In late December, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.

Israel has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians in its aerial bombing campaign and ground assault, with the majority killed being women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israeli politicians have explicitly gone on the record laying out plans to make Gaza unlivable for its inhabitants and replace the population with Israeli settlers. 

The Israeli military is calling for a reduction in aid to Gaza's 2.2 million civilians in a bid to pressure Hamas to release Israeli captives, according to a report in the Israeli media outlet Walla! News.

The Israeli military, according to the report, believes that inducing a deeper humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip could result in civil strife causing chaos among the Palestinian population. 

According to the UN, Palestinians in Gaza are already on the brink of starvation.

Turkey has officially backed South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses the state of genocide in its ongoing war on Gaza.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said in a statement that Ankara welcomes the South African case, which says Israel has violated its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

“Israel's murder of more than 22,000 Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom were women and children, in Gaza for nearly three months should not go unpunished in any way," Keceli said.

"Those responsible for this must be held accountable before international law,” he continued, adding: “We hope that the process will be completed as soon as possible.”

Read more: Turkey backs South Africa 'genocide' case against Israel at ICJ

The international community must "impose" a solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, according to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

"What we have learned over the last 30 years, and what we are learning now with the tragedy experienced in Gaza, is that the solution must be imposed from outside," Borrell told diplomats in Portugal on Wednesday.

"Peace will only be achieved in a lasting manner if the international community gets involved intensely to achieve it and imposes a solution," he said, making reference specifically to the US, Europe and Arab countries.   

He warned that the conflict could escalate after the Israeli killing of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of Hamas, in a drone strike in Beirut on Tuesday.

"What happened yesterday with the death of one of the leaders of Hamas is yet another factor that could push the conflict to escalate," Borrell said, adding he had planned to visit Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East to "explore ways out" of the war.

Borrell added that he would present a proposal to EU member states to create a mission to aid security in the Red Sea. It will be presented on Thursday and would require unanimity among member states to be approved, he said.

France has denounced comments made by far-right Israeli ministers calling for Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza and Jewish settlements to be re-established in the territory.

"France condemns the comments of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir," the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We call on Israel to refrain from such provocative declarations, which are irresponsible and fuel tensions."

On Monday, Ben-Gvir promote "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

A day earlier, Smotrich also called for the return of illegal settlements in Gaza, and said that Israel should "encourage" Palestinians to leave.

"The forced transfer of populations constitutes a grave violation of international law," the French foreign ministry said.

"The future of the Gaza Strip and its inhabitants will lie in a unified Palestinian state living in peace and security side-by-side with Israel."

Washington also condemned the ministers' controversial comments on Tuesday, describing them as "inflammatory and irresponsible".

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is set to deliver a speech shortly, following the killing of the Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday.

Questions have arisen on how Nasrallah will react.

The speech was originally scheduled to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Iran's most powerful military commander, General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US air strike in Iraq on 3 January 2020. 

Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday that their medical teams in the occupied West Bank are “seeing a surge of violence and harassment against Palestinians in Hebron.”

A psychologist on the team noted that their teams are treating more people with post-traumatic stress disorders and ongoing trauma.