Hezbollah chief vows to return focus to Israel

Tens of thousands of people attended a Hezbollah rally in Beirut on Monday, where the militant group’s leader vowed to return its focus to Israel after years of fighting in Syria’s civil war.

At the rally, called to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he hoped the “foolish decision” would mark the “beginning of the end” of the Jewish state.

Nasrallah said his group is almost done fighting extremists elsewhere in the region, and will now “give all its time” to Jerusalem and the Palestinians. “Death to Israel!” he said in the fiery address, which was broadcast from an undisclosed location and shown on big screens at the rally.

Hezbollah forced Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon in 2000 and the group battled Israel to a bloody stalemate six years later.

The Iranian-backed militant group is believed to have a massive arsenal of rockets capable of hitting much of Israel’s territory and its battle-hardened fighters played a key role in turning the tide of Syria’s civil war in favour of President Bashar Assad.

Nasrallah called on Palestinian armed groups and others in the region to come up with “unified strategy” to confront Trump’s decision. He said the Palestinians and Arab leaders should halt all negotiations with Israel, and called for a boycott of the Jewish state.

The protesters marched through the streets of southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, waving flags and chanting in support of the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.