BEIRUT (AFP)--The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah urged Hamas to inflict huge losses on Israel whose troops entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday after eight days of pounding the enclave by air and sea.
"Our brothers in the resistance in Palestine know that it is by inflicting the biggest possible losses on the Israeli enemy during the ground confrontation that they will win the battle," Hassan Nasrallah said.
"It is when the resistance kills soldiers and destroys tanks that the course of the battle will be determined," he added.
Nasrallah's remarks came as Israeli troops entered Gaza after pounding the densely populated Palestinian territory after eight days of air and sea bombardment.
His speech was beamed on a giant television screen to tens of thousands of supporters gathered in his movement's bastion of the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Hezbollah leader has been Israel's public enemy number one since his Shiite militant group fought it to a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in a devastating 34-day conflict in the summer of 2006.
Nasrallah almost never appears in public for fear of assassination attempts.
Hezbollah and Hamas are both considered arch-foes of the Jewish state and considered terrorist groups by Washington and its ally Israel.
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Publié le 03 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones