According to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran is said to have played a role in assisting the terrorist organization Hamas in planning a surprise attack on Israel. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Iranian security officials allegedly gave their approval for Hamas to carry out the attack during a meeting in Beirut the previous Monday. Leaders from both Hamas and Hezbollah claim that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been collaborating with Hamas since August on plans for air, land, and sea attacks.
The claims made by Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were reportedly supported by a European official who serves as an adviser to the Syrian government, as stated in the Wall Street Journal. However, U.S. officials have stated that they have not yet seen concrete evidence confirming Iran’s direct involvement in the attacks. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned on CNN that there is a historical relationship between Iran and such groups but stopped short of implicating Iran in this particular attack. An unnamed U.S. official also expressed a lack of information to corroborate the accounts presented.
While acknowledging Iran’s longstanding support for Hamas and Hezbollah, a U.S. official speaking to Fox News Digital suggested that Iran could be connected to the situation but emphasized that there was no current information to verify the report. Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reportedly praised the attacks on social media, predicting the downfall of the “Zionist regime” at the hands of Palestinian people and regional resistance forces, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In response to the attack, the Israeli government officially declared war on Sunday, marking the first such declaration since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, attributed the attack to Iran and suggested coordination among various groups with ties to Iran in Syria and Lebanon.
As the conflict escalates, officials report a significant loss of life, with at least 1,100 casualties since the war began on Saturday. These casualties include at least 700 individuals in Israel and approximately 400 in Gaza, where the Israeli military has targeted over 800 locations. Additionally, there are reports of Hamas taking hostages, including women and children, while U.S. officials are working to ascertain whether American citizens have been among those taken captive.
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SOURCE
https://www.foxnews.com/world/hamas-hezbollah-say-iran-helped-plan-deadly-attack-israel-report