Iran spent several weeks assisting Hamas in their deadly onslaught on Israel.
According to a Wall Street Journal story, Iran’s strong military assisted Hamas, the organization in charge of the Gaza Strip, in formulating its multifaceted attack on Israel, which would have been the worst in several years.
According to senior officials of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed organization, Iran assisted in planning the unprecedented strike on Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas and approved the action at a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, last week.
They said that since August, officers of Iran’s most powerful military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had been collaborating with Hamas to plan their multifaceted attack on Israel by land, air, and sea.
Meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-supported terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah, included discussion of Israel’s attack. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hezbollah is a Shiite terrorist organization and political party in Lebanon, whereas Hamas governs the Gaza Strip.
Hamas and Hezbollah members said that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had attended at least two of the sessions since August.
Israel was targeted as the nation seemed preoccupied with political squabbles over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration. Iran considered the US-mediated talks to normalize Saudi Arabia-Israel relations as a danger, therefore they told the publication that the strike was also intended to scupper them.
Senior Hamas and Hezbollah members as well as an Iranian official claimed that the larger Iranian military strategy was to establish a multi-front threat “strangling” Israel from all sides, including Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank.
It is noteworthy that Iran is putting aside other regional disputes, such as its open quarrel with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and concentrating on the IRGC’s international funding and arming of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, to fight Israel.
A top Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mirdawi, stated that the talks with Iran in Beirut were a “Palestinian and Hamas decision” when he was questioned about them.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a representative of Iran’s delegation to the UN as saying that Tehran supported the actions taken by Hamas in Gaza but denied having any control over them.
Under the condition of anonymity, the spokesperson was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying, “The decisions made by the Palestinian resistance are fiercely autonomous and unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people.” “We are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself,” he said.
After firing 5,000 rockets into Israel and infiltrating the nation by land, air, and sea, Hamas began a counteroffensive on Saturday to destroy its bases in the Gaza Strip.
Over 1,100 individuals have now died in the three-day fighting, more than 700 of them in Israel, including 44 soldiers.
