Beirut: The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah called on Palestinians today to launch a new uprising in the face of Israel's three-day-old assault against Gaza.

"I join the calls of those Palestinian leaders who have urged a third intifada," Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech beamed on a giant teleivision screen to tens of thousands of supporters gathered in his movement's bastion in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Nasrallah was alluding to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, who called on Saturday for the launch of a new intifada like those begun in 1987 and 2000.

The Hezbollah leader has been Israel's public enemy number one since his Shiite militant group fought it to a UN-brokered ceasefire in a devastating conflict in summer 2006 and he almost never appears in public for fear of assassination attempts.

Tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters turned out for today's demonstration to mark what Nasrallah called a "day of mourning and solidarity."

Source : PTI