Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday marked the anti-Israel Quds Day with a warning to the Jewish state – saying its deterrent power was weakening and that recent events in Yerushalayim and the West Bank “symbolize victory for the resistance.”

The leader of the Lebanese terror movement made his remarks on the annual day of hate against Israel, also known as Jerusalem Day, in which participants rally for the Palestinian cause and call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The rallies on Quds Day – created in 1979 by the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini – are held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“Today, we celebrate with faith and calmness and feel security, strength, and power,” Nasrallah said in his speech. “But yesterday, the Israeli entity announced its alertness on all fronts, prepared Iron Domes on all fronts, and sent worthless threatening messages to all the countries in the region,” he added, referring to Israel beefing up security in Jerusalem and spreading Iron Dome air defense batteries across the country after coming under rocket fire from armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza last week.

“We have created a powerful deterrent mechanism against Israel and its actions, as evidenced by what happened last week,” the Islamist leader said.

In response to the rocket fire, Israel carried out retaliatory strikes in southern Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria.

“The Israeli reaction is ridiculous,” Nasrallah continued. “So far, neither Lebanon nor Syria or Gaza are interested in a conflict or war,” but “Israel should be scared, deterred and worried.”

Meanwhile, tensions were high in Yerushalayim as tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers flocked to the Al-Aqsa compound for prayers, amid over 2,000 Israeli police officers deployed there as part of preparations for escalation. Recent terror attacks, warnings from regional enemies like Hezbollah and Iran, and calls by Palestinian terror groups for more violence have prompted Israel to prepare for the worst.

In Iraq, the leader of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nachala, marked Quds Day with a speech: “The resistance arenas emphasize their readiness, the resistance will come from Palestine and the surrounding area. Jerusalem is our identity, and the Jihad must continue in order to liberate it from the Zionist occupation.”

This year, Quds Day – which includes demonstrations in Iran, other Arab and Muslim countries, and among Israeli Arabs – coincides with intelligence reports signaling that Tehran was plotting large-scale attacks against Israel, particularly in the face of recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jerusalem.

“It may explode, I warn Israel and the United States – the Muslim and Christian holy places are our red line… and the Palestinian red line,” Nasrallah said.

He further highlighted developments in Israel’s society that have led some of the Jewish state’s enemies to believe that it was at a vulnerable point, such as civil unrest over the government’s controversial judicial overhaul.

“The huge division that Israel has known recently and the legal reform led to the overflow of everything that the Israeli people kept for themselves. The current division amounts to a bloodless war, which may lead to a fraternal war,” Nasrallah suggested. “The reluctance of the reserve forces is another significant sign, and the erosion of Israel’s deterrence capacity, which Israel itself has admitted to, is significant for the resistance,” he added, referring to Israeli reservists and on-duty soldiers refusing to serve in protest of the judicial shakeup.

He also claimed that other global conflicts were distracting Washington’s focus away from the escalating tensions in and around Israel.

“The United States is busy with other fronts such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the confrontation with China, and this is very troubling to the Israeli leadership,” Nasrallah continued. “When the power of the United States weakens as a hegemonic power, it strategically affects Israel, and Israel’s deterrent power weakens because it relies on the U.S.” –i24 News