ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Lebanon after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was confirmed among hundreds killed in Israeli strikes this week.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Erdogan condemned Israel’s military actions since the start of its offensive in Gaza on October 7.
“Lebanon and the Lebanese people are the latest target of a policy of genocide, occupation and invasion carried out by Israel since October 7,” Erdogan said, without directly referring to Nasrallah’s death.
Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions throughout the Gaza conflict, regularly accusing the country of “genocide.” He reiterated his stance, saying, “No person with a conscience can accept, excuse, or justify such a massacre,” and called for an end to Israel’s “mindless” attempts to spread the conflict across the region.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also condemned the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as a “crime”.
The Friday attack on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed Hezbollah’s leader was a “shameful attack” and “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines”, Sudani said in a statement. He called Nasrallah “a martyr on the path of the righteous”.
Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli overnight strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
The Israeli military spokesperson also confirmed that the main Hezbollah headquarters was targeted. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the world to “stop” Israel from waging a “genocidal war” against Lebanon, after a huge Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Mikati said that the new Israeli aggression proves that “the Israeli enemy” doesn’t care about all the global efforts and calls for a truce. He urged the international community to stop the “genocidal war that it (Israel) is waging against Lebanon”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly condemned Israel’s “short-sighted” policy after overnight strikes in Lebanon, that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his daughter Zainab Nasrallah.
In a statement, Khamenei described the attacks as a “massacre of defenseless people,” highlighting the brutality of the “Zionist rabid dog.”
Khamenei said that Israel is “too weak to cause significant damage to the solid construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon,” and he urged the “Axis of Resistance,” a coalition of groups across the Middle East, to support Hezbollah. He concluded with a warning that “Lebanon will make the aggressor and the evil enemy regretful.”
