Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday accused Israel of being behind this week’s attempt on the life of senior Hamas official Mohammad Abu Hamza Hamdan, though he did not provide any proof of his claims.
Hamdan was injured in a car explosion in the southern Lebanon city of Sidon and was evacuated to the hospital.
“All the signs indicate that Israel carried out the assassination attempt against a Hamas man in Sidon," Nasrallah said in a speech on Friday, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News.
In the speech, the Hezbollah leader also vehemently denied that the terrorist group is involved in drug trafficking and money laundering, saying the allegations were "completely baseless" and that the group considers such dealings forbidden by Islamic law.
Nasrallah was responding to United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recent announcement that he had ordered the Justice Department to establish an investigative team to probe organizations giving support to Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
The move comes in the wake of an expose last month by Politico which alleged that the Obama administration actively thwarted a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) operation into Hezbollah's drug smuggling operations in the United States in order to appease Iran ahead of the 2015 nuclear deal.
In his remarks, Nasrallah also criticized the Lebanese government for allowing cinemas to screen Stephen Spielberg's new film The Post after initially banning it due to Spielberg’s connection to Israel.
"We reject this decision. We consider it a mistake," said Nasrallah, according to Reuters.
"This man announced his support for the Israeli aggression against Lebanon. He paid Israel from his own money... to kill your children and destroy your houses," charged Nasrallah in reference to Spielberg.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)