Hezbollah warns Gulf countries are next if Israel defeats militants

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Wednesday that Israel’s strike on Qatar is a warning to oil-rich Gulf countries that they would not be spared in the future if militant groups in the region are defeated.

Naim Kassem’s comments came a day after Israel struck the Palestinian Hamas militant group’s political leadership in the capital of Qatar, whose government has been a key mediator in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli airstrikes did not kill Hamas leaders, but five lower-ranking members and a Qatari security officer lost their lives in the strikes.

“We are on the side of Qatar that was subjected to an aggression and we also stand with the Palestinian resistance,” Kassem said. He added that the Israeli strike is part of its attempts to create a “Greater Israel” in large parts of the Middle East.

Kassem’s comments came days after the Lebanese government approved a military proposal to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which suffered significant damage in its own 14-month war with Israel that ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Kassem said the reason Israel has not been able to achieve its expansionist goals is the presence of militant groups in Lebanon, Gaza and other parts of the Middle East. He added that oil-rich Gulf countries should back militant groups in the region financially, politically and socially.

“If the enemy defeats the resistance, and it will not be able to, your turn will be next,” Kassem said, referring to Gulf countries that have normal relations with Israel, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking about Lebanon, Kassem said that the ceasefire that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war did not achieve its goals and Israel keeps violating the truce.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, Israel has carried almost daily airstrikes on Lebanon, mainly targeting Hezbollah members. Israel says that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities after the war that left much of the group’s political and military leadership dead.

Kassem called for national unity in Lebanon, adding that Hezbollah is not ready to discuss the issue of its weapons outside a “national security strategy.”

Hezbollah officials, including Kassem, have refused to discuss the disarming of the group before Israel withdraws from five hills it is occupying inside Lebanon and stops its airstrikes on the country.

The Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused destruction worth $11 billion, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

The war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.