Al Azhar condemns Israeli attacks on Lebanese territories

CAIRO – 25 August 2024: Al Azhar Al Sharif, Egypt’s Top Islamic Sunni Institute, condemned Israeli ongoing acts aiming to destabilize the region and the latest dangerous escalation by Israeli occupation air forces against the Lebanese territories.

This would escalate the conflict that the Israeli occupying entity has launched against the Palestinian territories and the northern occupied lands of Palestine, l Azhar added, noting that the immediate cessation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip is the only way to prevent this dangerous escalation.

Al Azhar warned against the repercussions of this escalation on the stability and safety of the region, calling upon the international community to immediately interfere to end this escalation, which aims at expanding the ongoing conflicts in the region. It also demanded to stop the ongoing terrorist and killing acts and prevent the prolonged Israeli attack on Gaza.

Al Azhar said the international community is morally responsible for upholding the power of international law and charters to stop this ongoing terrorist and to hold all the occupation leaders accountable for the war crimes they committed through the non-stop massacres over 11 months.

 Hezbollah declared on Sunday the completion of the "first phase" of retaliatory strikes against Israel, deploying drones and launching 320 Katyusha rockets targeting 11 Israeli military installations.

"Indeed, we will take revenge upon the criminals," Hezbollah stated in a release, citing these actions as reprisals for the assassination of their senior commander, Fuad Shukr, in a late July Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Hezbollah said it successfully targeted and hit the Meron Base, Neveh Ziv Artillery Position, Zaatoun Base, Zaoura Artillery Positions, Sahel Base, Ein Zeitim Base, and Ramot Naftali Barracks.

In the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, the movement said it also hit the Keila Barracks, UAV Barracks, Nafah Base, and Yardena Base.

Simultaneously, the Israeli military disclosed that "dozens" of warplanes conducted operations inside Lebanon upon detecting Hezbollah's preparations to launch rockets towards Israel.

A security source in Lebanon, as cited by Reuters, reported around 40 Israeli strikes impacting the southern parts of the country.

However, few hours later, Secretary-General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah announced in a televised speech that for the first time, the Hezbollah fighters launched a drone from the Bekaa region, and despite the long distance, it crossed into the occupied Palestinian territories.

He added that the specific military targets were the "Aman" military intelligence base and Unit 8200 in "Glilot," and the other target was the air defense base in "Ein Shemer."

“All we intended to launch in this operation was 300 rockets, but we launched 340 rockets, and the enemy did not thwart anything,” he continued, saying “We are facing an ‘Israeli’ intelligence failure and a failure in preemptive action, and our operation was completed precisely as planned.”

Egypt is following with great concern the ongoing escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli front, and calls for concerting international and regional efforts to reduce tensions and instability in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Sunday. 

Egypt warned of the risks of opening a new front in Lebanon, stressing the importance of preserving the stability and sovereignty of Lebanon, and avoiding the region's implication in a state of overacrching instability.