Iran 'helped plan Hamas attack on Israel and gave green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last week': Islamic Republic 'devised assault' that plunged the Middle East into war

  • Post category:news
  • Reading time:9 min(s) read

  • Hamas plotted the air, land and sea invasions with help from officers of Iran ‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 
  • The official go-ahead for the attack was allegedly given at a Monday meeting in Beirut 
  • At least 700 people have been killed since the attack began Saturday 

Senior members of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah claimed that Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel that killed at least 700 people was given the green light by Iranian security officials.

Hamas plotted the air, land and sea invasions with help from officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Israel has since branded Iran a ‘terrorist state.’

The official go-ahead for the attack was allegedly given at a Monday meeting in Beirut. 

Four other Iranian backed military groups were believed to be at the meeting, including members of Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims he has ‘not yet seen evidence’ that Iran was involved in the attack. 

Palestinians are greeted by crowds after returning from crossing the border into Israel on Saturday

Palestinians are greeted by crowds after returning from crossing the border into Israel on Saturday

‘We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account,’ an American official told the Wall Street Journal. 

A senior Hamas official said in a statement that they acted alone. ‘This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision,’ he said. 

However, a European official and adviser to Syria gave the same accounts as others that this was planned out in concert. 

The sources quoted claim that members of each group have met with a branch of the IRGC biweekly since at least August to plan out the attack. 

Some in attendance include IRGC military leader Ismail Qaani, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Jihad leader al-Nakhalah, and Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’s military leader.

Iran was branded a ‘terrorist state’ by Israel last night as the spiralling violence threatened to spill into a major conflict in the Middle East.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a ‘mighty vengeance’, promising to reduce parts of Gaza run by Hamas ‘into rubble’.

Forces in the north also exchanged rocket and artillery fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces (lDF) said: ‘Without Iran’s funding, weapons, training, guidance and political incitement, Hamas would not have the capability nor the capacity.’

He added: ‘This was a watershed moment, unprecedented in scale, severity, brutality and the sheer joy with which terrorists were butchering Israeli citizens.

The Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for ‘significant military steps’ to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack from the Gaza Strip.

More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to crush the last groups of militant fighters holed up in several towns of southern Israel.

The declaration came as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The toll passed 1,000 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.

More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to defeat the last groups of militants holed up in several towns.

At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel, a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades, and more than 300 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.

The Israeli rescue service Zaka said its paramedics removed about 260 bodies from a music festival attended by thousands that came under attack.

A member of the Israeli security forces stands near burning cars following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israe

A member of the Israeli security forces stands near burning cars following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israe

People walk atop the rubble of a tower destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Saturday

People walk atop the rubble of a tower destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Saturday

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel early Sunday

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel early Sunday

The total figure is expected to be higher as other paramedic teams were working in the area.

Video on social media and Israeli news outlets showed dozens of festivalgoers running through an open field as gunshots rang out. Many hid in nearby fruit orchards or were gunned down as they fled.

The declaration of war portended greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.

Meanwhile, in northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fanned fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war.

Authorities were still trying to determine how many civilians and soldiers were seized by Hamas fighters during the mayhem and taken back to Gaza.

From videos and witnesses, the captives are known to include women, children and the elderly.

Among the missing is British soldier Jake Marlowe, 26, who has not been heard from since Saturday morning after he was working as part of a security team at the festival near Re’im, a village close to the border with Gaza in the south of Israel.

A member of Israeli police is seen in Ashkelon, southern Israel yesterday after the Hamas offensive

A member of Israeli police is seen in Ashkelon, southern Israel yesterday after the Hamas offensive

The Jewish nation is raining down fire on fighters in the Gaza strip in a ruthless counteroffensive in the south while it also pounds Lebanon with artillery in the north.

In a post on X, he said: ‘As the barbarity of today’s atrocities becomes clearer, we stand unequivocally with Israel.’

US President Joe Biden ‘unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza’, and said ‘we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel’.

‘Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people,’ he said.

Gaza has been devastated by four wars and countless skirmishes between Hamas and Israel since the militants seized control of the strip in 2007. But the scenes of violence inside Israel itself were beyond anything seen there even at the height of the Palestinian Intifada uprisings of past decades.

That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to a nation that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of militants.

The Israel-Palestine conflict: recent events in a decades-long dispute

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched its biggest assault on Israel in years early on Saturday, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters across the border.

Israel said it was on a war footing and began its own strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, with Israeli media reporting gun battles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in southern Israel.

The following timeline, which begins with Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, details the major flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups in the crowded coastal enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.

August 2005: Israeli forces unilaterally withdraw from Gaza 38 years after capturing it from Egypt in the Middle East war, abandoning settlements and leaving the enclave under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Jan. 25, 2006: The Islamist group Hamas wins a majority of seats in a Palestinian legislative election. Israel and the U.S. cut off aid to Palestinians because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

June 25, 2006: Hamas militants capture Israeli army conscript Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza, prompting Israeli air strikes and incursions. Shalit is finally freed more than five years later in a prisoner exchange.

June 14, 2007: Hamas takes over Gaza in a brief civil war, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.

Dec. 27, 2008: Israel launches a 22-day military offensive in Gaza after Palestinians fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported killed before a ceasefire is agreed.

Nov. 14, 2012: Israel kills Hamas’s military chief of staff, Ahmad Jabari. Eight days of Palestinian militant rocket fire and Israeli air strikes follow.

July-August 2014: The kidnap and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas leads to a seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians are reported killed in Gaza and 73 Israelis are reported dead, 67 of them military.

March 2018: Palestinian protests begin at Gaza’s fenced border with Israel. Israeli troops open fire to keep protestors back. More than 170 Palestinians are reported killed in several months of protests, which also prompt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.

May 2021: After weeks of tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of Palestinians are wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces at the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site.

After demanding Israel withdraw security forces from the compound, Hamas unleashes a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel hits back with air strikes on Gaza. Fighting goes on for 11 days, killing at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

Aug 2022: At least 44 people, including 15 children, are killed in three days of violence that begin when Israeli air strikes hit a senior Islamic Jihad commander.

Israel says the strikes were a pre-emptive operation against an imminent attack by the Iranian-backed militant movement, targeting commanders and arms depots. In response, Islamic Jihad fires more than 1,000 rockets towards Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system prevents any serious damage or casualties.

Jan 2023: Islamic Jihad in Gaza fires two rockets towards Israel after Israeli troops raid a refugee camp and kill seven Palestinian gunmen and two civilians. The rockets set off alarms in Israeli communities near the border but cause no casualties. Israel responds with air strikes on Gaza.

Oct 2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in years from the Gaza Strip, with a surprise assault combining gunmen crossing the border with a heavy barrage of rockets. Islamic Jihad says its fighters have joined the attack.

Israel’s military said it was on a war footing, adding it had carried out strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza and had called up reservists.

Source: Reuters 




#Iran #039helped #plan #Hamas #attack #Israel #gave #green #light #assault #meeting #Beirut #week039 #Islamic #Republic #039devised #assault039 #plunged #Middle #East #war