Iran Calls for ‘Immediate Action’ Against Israel Over Strike on Hezbollah

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations has issued a call for action against Israel over its recent strike against a leading Hezbollah military official amid worsening tit-for-tat attacks against the backdrop of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, according to a letter shared with Newsweek.

The letter, sent by Iranian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Amir Saeid Iravani to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, described the strike targeting senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, also known as Sayyid Muhsen, in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut as an “act of aggression” and “heinous crime” that “demonstrates this regime has no regard for the norms and principles of international law.”

“It must be unequivocally and immediately condemned by the Security Council,” Iravani said. “The Security Council must also take immediate action in response to this criminal act to ensure that such aggression, which threatens regional peace and security, is not repeated. Israel must be held accountable for these atrocities and cannot go unpunished.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier announced the targeting of Shukr due to what spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari described as the Hezbollah figure’s role as “commander responsible for the Majdal Shams massacre, in which 12 children were murdered after Hezbollah fired an Iranian Falaq-1 rocket directly at a soccer field in northern Israel on Saturday evening.”

“He was a senior terrorist who has the blood of Israelis and many others on his hands,” Hagari said.

Hezbollah has denied its role in the strike that took place Saturday in Majdal Shams, a majority-Druze town in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights. As news of the IDF strike first broke on Tuesday, a Hezbollah spokesperson told Newsweek that “any attack will be met with a response.”

Iran is the top supporter of Hezbollah and other factions of the Axis of Resistance coalition that have conducted regular attacks on Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by an attack led by the Palestinian Hamas movement on Israel last October. As worsening Israel-Lebanon border violence has fueled concerns over another all-out war, Iranian officials have repeatedly warned Israel against any major escalations, while the IDF has vowed it was prepared to counter all threats.

In his letter, Iravani argued that “the Israeli regime’s claims of protecting civilians and the population in the [Israel]-occupied Golan are hypocritical, as its atrocities in Gaza and the region reveal a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law.”

“Furthermore,” he added, “under international law, Israel, as an occupying power, has no right to invoke self-defense to legitimize its actions in the occupied territories.”

The Golan Heights were seized by Israel from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and later annexed in 1981 without international recognition. The area is now home to an estimated 20,000 Druze Arabs, most of whom identify as Syrian and have rejected Israeli citizenship, as well as 25,000 Israeli Jewish settlers.

The Majdal Shams Regional Council has said that none of those killed were Israeli citizens. Still, the IDF has considered the strike to be the deadliest against civilians on Israel-controlled territory since Hamas’ initial attack on October 7, 2023, that Israeli officials estimate killed around 1,200 people.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Hamas-led Gaza has reported that nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the ensuing war in the densely populated Mediterranean territory.

Iravani argued in his letter that “the only path to restoring peace and stability in the region is to immediately, completely, and permanently end the Israeli occupation, aggression, and genocidal crimes.

“We urge the Security Council to take decisive action in accordance with its responsibilities under the United Nations Charter,” Iravani said. “This includes compelling the Israeli regime to immediately and unconditionally end its acts of genocide and aggression against Gaza, to end the violation of pertinent resolutions of the Security Council, withdraw its occupying forces from all Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories, and cease its aggression and military attacks on the territory of Lebanon or other countries in the region.”

In an exclusive interview with Newsweek two weeks ago, Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said the U.N. Security Council should “resort to force” if necessary to rein in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council last month endorsed a three-phase ceasefire proposal drawn up the United States. However, conflicting narratives have emerged over the contents of the plan and negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked.

Meanwhile, clashes continued in Gaza as well as across the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday as regional tensions continued to mount, with Israeli officials reporting the death of another civilian in northern Israel as a result of a Hezbollah strike.

The U.S. military also announced that same day the destruction of three armed unmanned vessels of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement. A number of media outlets cited unnamed U.S. officials claiming responsibility for an airstrike said to have been taken in self-defense against militia positions in Jurf al-Sakhr, southwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Both Ansar Allah and a coalition of militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq are members of the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance and have frequently launched missiles and drones against Israel and commercial vessels accused of supporting it throughout the conflict in Gaza. Iraqi militias have also conducted strikes against U.S. troops in a monthslong campaign largely halted in February after a series of U.S. strikes in response to the deaths of three U.S. soldiers at the Jordan-Syria border but threatened to resume to over the ongoing violence in the region and presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

In a statement issued Tuesday following the Israeli strike in Beirut, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson affirmed that the U.S.’ “commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” describing the attack on Majdal Shams as “horrific.”

“Israel has a right to defend itself against the severe threats it faces,” Watson said. “At the same time, the United States is continuing to work on a diplomatic solution to end these terrible attacks and allow citizens on both sides to safely return to their homes.”