The Iran-aligned Lebanese movement Hezbollah (“Party of God”) on Tuesday congratulated the new leader of Hamas, Yahya Shinwar, who took over after his predecessor’s assassination in Tehran, further fueling fears of a Middle East flare-up.

Since October 8, the day after an unprecedented incursion by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military arm into southern Israeli territory, Hezbollah, a key component of the Iran-adjacent “axis of resistance,” has opened a front against Israel in southern Lebanon, for to “support” Hamas, its ally.

Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah accused Israel of killing Ismail Haniya, the former head of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s political bureau, and vowed revenge.

The selection of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “confirms that the enemy has not achieved its goals,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The Israeli political and military leadership accuses Yahya Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

It is a “strong message” to Israel, the US and its allies, which is that Hamas is “united in its decision, firm in its principles, unwavering in its important choices, determined to march (…) on the road of resistance,” the Shiite movement continued.

The “Axis of Resistance,” a loose alliance of Iran-allied factions in the region, is “waging a heroic and historic battle on many fronts at a sensitive time regionally,” according to Hezbollah.

For the Shiite party, which declares that it will not stop attacks against Israel in the event of a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip, the election of Yahya Sinwar “at this critical moment” strengthens “the determination to unify efforts and the continuation of jihad and resistance”.

Following the killings of Ismail Haniya in Tehran and Fouad Shukr, a leading figure in Hezbollah’s military wing, last night in an Israeli bombardment in a southern suburb of Beirut, part of the international community has engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to avoid military escalation. that would set fire to the Near East.

Yesterday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that there will be retaliation against Israel, “whatever the consequences.”