Iran is claiming that the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel were revenge for the killing of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRG...
Iran is claiming that the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel were revenge for the killing of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Prior to his death at the hands of U.S. forces in 2020, Soleimani was the leader of the Quds Force division of the IRGC and the mastermind behind Iran’s proxy militia’s activities in the Middle East. Iran claimed on Wednesday that the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel that left 1,200 civilians dead was an act of retaliation for the killing of Soleimani, according to Iran International.
“The Al-Aqsa Storm was one of the retaliations of the Axis of Resistance against the Zionists for the martyrdom of Qasem Soleimani,” an IRGC spokesperson said, according to Iran International.
The statement comes days after an Israeli airstrike killed IRGC Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, an ally of Soleimani, in Syria on Monday. The IRGC noted in their statement on Wednesday that they would respond to Mousavi’s death “directly and indirectly” through Iran’s terror proxy network, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Hamas denied the IRGC’s statement that the Oct. 7 attacks were revenge for Soleimani’s death, instead citing the “Zionist occupation” of the region as their motive, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“Hamas denies the validity of the remarks given by the spokesperson of the [IRGC], Brigadier General Ramadan Sharif, regarding the operation of the Flood of al-Aqsa and its motives,” Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We also confirm that all acts of Palestinian resistance come in response to the Zionist occupation and its ongoing aggression against our people and our holy sites.”
Soleimani was killed in an airstrike in Iraq in January 2020 at the behest of then-President Donald Trump, who accused Soleimani of planning attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East.
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