Hezbollah chief raps Arab leaders over inaction on Palestinian hunger strike

The Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement has leveled sharp criticism against Arab leaders and the Arab League over their inaction and silence on the plight of hundreds of Palestinians currently on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

During a televised speech at a ceremony marking the birthday anniversary of the fourth Shia Imam Ali Bin al-Hussein (PBUH) in Beirut on Tuesday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed the resistance movement’s unstinting support for the Palestinian inmates.

He stated that the Israeli regime is clinging to the hope that Palestinian hunger strikers would eventually abandon their struggle as the time goes.

“Palestinian hunger strikers are only demanding their basic rights as prisoners in Israeli jails. Where are Arab leaders and Muslim organizations to see the situation of Palestinian hunger strikers?” Nasrallah argued.

Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners from various political factions launched an open-ended hunger strike on April 17.

The strikers are demanding their basic rights, such as an end to the policies of administrative detention, solitary confinement as well as deliberate medical negligence.

Silence on Yemen

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hezbollah secretary general pointed to Saudi Arabia’s devastating aerial bombardment campaign against Yemen, stressing that the ongoing Saudi atrocities there are being ignored only because billions of dollars that the Al Saud regime is offering to the West.

“The whole world is grimly silent as millions in Yemen are being killed and living under the siege imposed by US ally – Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Baseless Western claims

Nasarallah also criticized the West for blaming Damascus for the suspected chemical incident in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib Province on April 4, which reportedly killed over 80 people.

The Hezbollah leader emphasized that the accusations are being made irrespective of the fact that no concrete evidence of the Syrian government’s involvement in the purported attack has been provided up until now.

On April 7, the Pentagon said 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles had been fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea at Shayrat airfield in Syria’s central province of Homs.

US officials claimed that the alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun had been launched from the military site. Syria has vehemently dismissed the allegations of being behind the attack.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that at least nine people had been killed in the early morning strike on the Syrian airfield.

Hezbollah vs. Takfiri terrorists

Nasrallah also defended the presence of Hezbollah members in Syria, stating that foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists would have overrun Lebanon if resistance fighters had not engaged them in the neighboring country.

In August 2014, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Daesh terrorist groups overran the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal, killing a number of Lebanese forces. They took 30 soldiers hostage, most of whom have been released.

Since then, Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have been defending Lebanon on the country’s northeastern frontier against foreign-backed terrorist groups from neighboring Syria.

Hezbollah fighters have fended off several Daesh attacks inside Lebanon. They have also been providing assistance to Syrian army forces to counter the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy.

The movement has accused Israel of supporting Takfiri terrorists operating in the Middle East.

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