Hezbollah officially announced its entry into the war early Monday, launching a massive missile and drone barrage into Israel in retaliation for the killing of a top Islamic leader. Israeli forces responded with a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese Islamic Resistance has officially announced its entry into the military conflict, launching a major offensive against Israeli targets early Monday morning. According to Statement No. 1 released by Hezbollah, as reported by Akharin Khabar—an Iranian mainstream news aggregator known for its pro-state alignment—the group claimed responsibility for "the barrage of missiles and drones fired at occupied territories in the early hours of this morning."
The Hezbollah statement emphasized that the offensive was enacted as a right to revenge for the spilling of the pure blood of the Guardian of the Muslims, alongside the right to legitimate defense against the repeated aggressions of the occupation regime in Lebanon.
Following the attacks, military escalation rapidly intensified along the border. News sources cited by Akharin Khabar reported that Zionist fighter jets were observed flying at low altitudes over southern Lebanon.
Shortly after, the Israeli military initiated retaliatory strikes. The Sepah Pasdaran channel—a media outlet closely affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that amplifies Axis of Resistance messaging—cited the Zionist regime's Channel 12 regarding the immediate military response. The Iranian channel reported that the Israeli army launched a wave of airstrikes on areas in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's missile attacks on the north.
The phrase 'Guardian of the Muslims' (ولی امر مسلمین) used in the Hezbollah statement refers to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, heavily implying his death or assassination as the casus belli for Hezbollah's official entry into the conflict. Iranian media sources natively use ideological terminology such as Zionist regime and occupation regime, which have been integrated directly into the text without sanitization to accurately reflect their editorial framing.