Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised Hamas on Friday for the West Bank shooting attacks which left four Israelis dead and two injured on two consecutive days, saying "this is the way to free Jerusalem and Palestine."
Four Israelis were killed and two injured this past week in separate shooting attacks in the West Bank. The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, took responsibly for both attacks and vowed that there would be more, just as U.S.-sponsored direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were officially launched in Washington.
Speaking at a rally held in honor of Jerusalem day, in a neighborhood south of Beirut, Nasrallah criticized the Palestinian Authority for agreeing to direct negotiations with Israel.
"These negotiations were born to die," Nasrallah said.
"Palestine from the sea to the river is the property of the Palestinian nation, of the Arab and the Muslim, and no one has the right to relinquish that land, not even a drop of its water," Nasrallah said.
While criticizing the Palestinian Authority, Nasrallah said the Palestinian group Hamas and other opposition forces "need to hear voices of support from the Arab and Islamic world."
He continued by praising "the steadfast position of resistance forces in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, along with Syria and Iran," which are helping to prevent Israel and the United States from establishing a "new Middle East."
Jerusalem day was declared by the late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and is held on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan. On this day, mass rallies against Israel and in support of the Palestinians are held throughout the Arab world.
The rallies this year coincided with the first direct Middle East peace talks in almost two years, in Washington, where U.S. President Barack Obama was hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.