BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrillas warned Israel tody that they would usher in the New Year with more suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon.

In a scathing speech to a rally of more than 1,000 supporters, Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said peace deals between Arabs and Israel would not bring stability to the Middle East or legitimacy to the Jewish state.

"There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel," he told the crowd. "Peace settlements will not change reality, which is that Israel is the enemy and that it will never be a neighbor or a nation.

"Peace will not wipe out the memory of the massacres it has committed ... And on this last day of the century, I promise Israel that it will see more suicide attacks, for we will write our history with blood," Nasrallah declared.

The rally, held outside Hizbollah’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs, followed the group’s first suicide attack against Israeli troops in years. It also comes three days before Lebanon’s political master Syria begins a second round of peace talks with Israel in the United States.

Twelve civilians and an Israeli soldier were wounded on Thursday when 20-year-old Ammar Hammoud blew up his explosives-laden van near an Israeli patrol inside Israel’s south Lebanon occupation zone.

Israel said it had expected such attacks ahead of the peace talks, even though it freed five Hizbollah prisoners this week.

Nasrallah told Israel not to confuse political gestures with humanitarian issues and hailed Hammoud as a valiant hero who gave his life for the liberation of Jerusalem.

"Ammar is proof that Israel will certainly vanish and Jerusalem will return. There are thousands like him waiting for Israel," Nasrallah said as supporters interrupted his speech with chants of "God is Greatest" and "Death to Israel."

Nasrallah, his voice brimming with pride, said Hammoud had detonated a van packed with 550 lbs of explosives, killing at least seven Israelis and wounding eight more. "Israel will not admit to the casualties, but we know," he said.

Hizbollah, backed by Iran and supported by Syria, held the rally to commemorate "Jerusalem Day," which Tehran celebrates on the last Friday of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Guerrillas, dressed in Hizbollah’s black and green fatigues, paraded before Nasrallah, stomping on Israeli and U.S. flags which were painted on the ground.

Hizbollah and other guerrilla groups are fighting to end Israel’s 21-year-old occupation of the south. Israel has controlled parts of the area since 1978 and in 1985 carved out its security zone to guard against potential guerrilla attacks.

The group has said it would continue to battle Israel’s presence in the south but it has not said what it would do if Israel makes peace with Syria and Lebanon or if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak honors a promise to quit the south in July.

Syria, which has 35,000 troops stationed in Lebanon, sees the conflict in the south as a lever against Israel.

Despite the fiery rhetoric, Nasrallah avoided condemning a Syrian or Lebanese peace deal with Israel. But he attacked Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s "treacherous" negotiations and incited the Palestinians to take up arms against Israel.

"Israel is as strong as a spider’s web. It can be wiped out with guns, knives and blood," he declared.

Meanwhile, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called today for the destruction of Israel, saying it was the only way to solve the problems of the Middle East.

Khamenei’s remarks came as millions of Iranians held rallies across Iran to protest Israel’s control over Jerusalem, the city where Muslims believe Prophet Mohammed began his journey to heaven. The demonstrations for "Al-Quds Day" -Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem- spilled over into anti-American protests because of U.S. support for Israel.

"The hands of the U.S. are fully stained with the blood of the Palestinians," Khamenei told hundreds of thousands of Iranians in his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University. He said there is only one possible solution to unrest in the Middle East, "namely the annihilation and destruction of the Zionist state."

Khamenei also attacked the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"When they started the talks, I said that this man (Arafat) is a traitor and stupid, too. If he was a smart traitor, he would have at least acted in a better way than this," Khamenei said.

The demonstrators held a rally on the way to the university campus, chanting "death to Israel, death to America." A banner carried a slogan by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: "Quds is part of Islam’s body."

In 1979, Khomeini declared the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as "Al-Quds Day," a day of protest to show the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims. Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam, after the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina.

In Lebanon, Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas marked Al-Quds Day with a rally outside the capital, Beirut. Fighters in combat gear stomped on U.S. and Israeli flags, crying "Death to Israel" and "Jerusalem is Ours."

The guerrillas, who are trying to oust Israeli forces occupying southern Lebanon, took a public oath to continue their fight.

By WorlHistory.