Iran and Hamas are suddenly arguing with each other, as Iran reportedly claimed that Hamas’ brutal massacre of 1200 Israelis on October 7 was a response to the 2020 assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani by the United States, prompting Hamas to retort that the reason for the murderous assault was “the dangers that threaten al-Aqsa Mosque.”
According to Al Jazeera, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the repressive military right arm of the Iranian theocratic government which was labeled a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department in 2019, issued a statement saying, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was one of the responses to the assassination of Soleimani.”
عاجل | الحرس الثوري الإيراني: عملية طوفان الأقصى كانت إحدى الردود على اغتيال قاسم سليماني
— الجزيرة – عاجل (@AJABreaking) December 27, 2023
Referring to the killing of Razi Mousavi, a brigadier general with the IRGC who was responsible for coordinating military action by Syria and Iran, on Monday in Damascus, the IRGC added, “The assassination of one of our advisors will not hinder the ongoing struggle against Zionist arrogance. We are well aware of the reasons for the assassination and will respond to it directly and indirectly through the resistance axis. Assassination is a terrorist act, and the response will be resolute at the right time and place.”
“Hamas denies the validity of the remarks given by the spokesperson of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Ramadan Sharif, regarding the operation of the Flood of al-Aqsa and its motives,” Hamas responded, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We have repeatedly confirmed the motives and reasons for the operation of the Flood of al-Aqsa, and foremost are the dangers that threaten al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Palestinian leadership, whether the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, repeatedly uses the supposed threat to the Al-Aqsa mosque as an excuse to launch attacks against Israel. The Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000-2005 and in which, according to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, 1,137 Israelis were murdered, was referred to by Palestinians as the al Aqsa intifada.
Between May 2001 and May 2002, the following massacres occurred: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001; 12 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bas-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matzah restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.
Yet Muslims are allowed free access to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism where the two Biblical Temples stood and where al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand today. It is the Jews who must be guarded by Israeli soldiers when they visit the Temple Mount, often denied access because of fear of Muslim rioting.
For a primer on the centrality of the Temple Mount for Jews, see here.
