Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, gave Hamas terrorists specialized combat training in the weeks leading up to their attack on Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sources familiar with intelligence related to Hamas’ attack on Israel told the WSJ that at least 500 terrorists with Hamas and Hamas’ ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, participated in the training last month. According to the sources, the training exercises were overseen by Quds Force officers, including the head of the Quds Force, Iranian Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, who took over following the death of Qasem Soleimani.
On October 7, more than 1,400 Israeli citizens were brutally slaughtered and hundreds more were kidnapped by Hamas as the terrorists targeted civilians, raping women, murdering infants, and burning houses with entire Israeli families inside of them. Hamas’ inhuman brutality was the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel were also carrying documents that contained instructions on how to make chemical weapons along with elements to make a bomb, according to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said the Hamas documents are based on a 2003 al Qaeda manual.
“We are dealing with ISIS, al Qaeda and Hamas,” Herzog told Sky News.
While U.S. military officials said they have no indication Hamas received training from Iran before the attack, Israeli officials said Iran “directly assisted” the terrorist attack, adding that the Iranian regime is continuing to help Hamas by providing it with crucial intelligence.
“Before the war, Iran directly assisted Hamas with money, training and weapons and technological know-how,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli Defense Forces chief spokesman, according to the WSJ. “Even now, Iran is helping Hamas with intelligence.”
Previously The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran, along with Hezbollah, plotted Hamas’ attack and gave the terrorist group the green light in an October 2 meeting to launch its assault on Israel. An adviser in the Syrian government and a European official also said Iran was heavily involved in the planning of Hamas’ attack, but senior U.S. officials disputed reports of Iran’s involvement, saying the information they have “does not show a direct connection to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 as it relates to Iran.”
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Republicans have condemned Iran and warned of the country escalating the already deadly conflict following Hamas’ attack. GOP politicians have also pointed out that President Joe Biden unfroze $6 billion for Israel’s enemy just weeks before the terrorist attack.
“Iran is behind this,” said Senator Joni Ernst, who served in the U.S. military for 23 years. “They fund 93% of Hamas’ activities; they fund 100% of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s activities; not to mention Hezbollah and the Houthis. This all goes right back to Iran.”
“But you know what, who else is involved in this?” she asked. “President Biden has been so actively appeasing Iran instead of standing up to them, and I’m telling you, if we lose more Americans, we need to go after Iran. It is incredibly important that we push back against them. We need to be interdicting their oil just as our sanctions call for, we need to refreeze that $6 billion.”
While Iran has denied it had a role in the attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar a week after Hamas’ terrorist attack, and the two appeared to be in good spirits. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in the days following the attack that Iran was not behind the attack, but at the same time, he praised the “resourceful and intelligent” designers of the brutal assault.