Hassan Nasrallah addresses supporters in Beirut
Hassan Nasrallah addresses supporters in BeirutReuters

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist movement on Wednesday backed a campaign of Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israelis, describing them as resistance and an "intifada."

"I emphasize our absolute support for the rights of the Palestinian people and their intifada," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address ahead of the Shiite Muslim religious holiday Ashura.

"It is incumbent upon us all to stand by the Palestinians and help them all we can, and to recognize the fact that the Palestinians have in front of them... no choice but the choice of resistance and intifada," he added.

Nasrallah said the Palestinians were responding to "provocations by Israelis" and were seeking to prevent the "Judaization of Al-Aqsa mosque."

His comments come after a wave of mainly stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis that have raised concerns of a full-blown terrorist campaign akin to the first and second intifadas.

On Wednesday, two more stabbing attacks were reported in Jerusalem, including one that wounded a 70-year-old woman.

Hezbollah, Iran's largest and most powerful proxy in the Middle East, is opposed to the existence of Israel and has fought several bloody wars against the Jewish state, most recently in the summer of 2006.

In recent years, Hezbollah has skirmished with Israel on the demarcation line between Lebanon and the Jewish state, but avoided a larger-scale conflict.

Its forces now are largely committed to helping the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria crush an uprising in his country, souring attitudes towards Hezbollah among much of the Arab street, particularly among Sunni Muslims. Around 1,000 Hezbollah fighters are believed to have died in Syria.

Nasrallah rarely appears in public, due to fears either Israel or Sunni Muslim's may attempt to kill the man both view as a terrorist.

But attacking Israel is one point on which Hezbollah and Sunni-Islamist terrorist groups can agree on. Nasrallah's endorsement of Palestinian terrorism comes just three days after Al Qaeda's Somali branch, Al-Shabaab, issued a proclamation 'applauding' attacks on Jews and calling for more.

AFP contributed to this report.