Iran Helped Hamas “Plot Israel Attack Over Several Weeks”, Gave Green Light, WSJ Reports
Readers may recall that we ended our first post-mortem to the war between Israel and Hamas by speculation if Iran would get dragged in.
That speculation was all but validated moments ago when the WSJ reported that “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday”, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.
Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions, the WSJ reported citing its Hamas and Hezbollah sources.
Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said.
At the same time, officials from the deep state blob, who have been desperate to appease both Iran and Venezuela in recent months in hopes of getting sanctions against the Tehran regime lifted so that it can officially supply extra oil to the US ahead of the 2024 elections (instead of just unofficially shipping oil to China), with Biden terrified of what high gas prices may do to his reelection chances, say they haven’t seen evidence of Tehran’s involvement. In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there is certainly a long relationship.” This was echoed by a U.S. official at the meetings who said, “We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account.”
A European official and an adviser to the Syrian government, however, both of whom are not bound by the price of oil in November 2024, gave the same account of Iran’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack as the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members.
Some more details from the WSJ:
A direct Iranian role would take Tehran’s long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of broader conflict in the Middle East. Senior Israeli security officials have pledged to strike at Iran’s leadership if Tehran is found responsible for killing Israelis.
The IRGC’s broader plan is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides—Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members and an Iranian official.
Whether or not Iran actually did help Hamas plan and execute the attack, and whether Mossad, the world’s best intelligence agency, was really completely unaware of what was going on, is, for the time being, irrelevant. What matters is that the narrative is now being shaped so that the mainstream media will cast blame on Iran alongside Hamas, just as a US aircraft carrier arrives in the Gulf to provide support to Israel.
The geopolitical implications are staggering, but once again, we repeat our advice from Saturday morning: fill up your gas tank now.
For the first time since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the government of Israel has issued a formal and legal “declaration of war” after Saturday’s devastating assault from Islamic militants out of Gaza, which according to the country’s health ministry has left over 700 Israelis dead and thousands injured. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told CNN in a morning interview, “There will probably be more hundreds, several hundred more.”
At least 350 people have been killed on the Palestinian side as a large-scale Israeli bombing campaign over Gaza ensues. Israeli officials are expected to embark on some kind of hostage rescue operation. According to Israeli media, there are foreigners, likely including Americans, among the kidnapped hostages being held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad:
The Government Press Office, a body that operates under the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, said Sunday in a Facebook post that the number of hostages in Gaza was over 100.
Among the kidnapped were small children, the elderly, and foreign nationals, including 11 Thais working on farms near the border. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department was attempting to confirm reports that Americans had been killed or kidnapped.
Nonstop troop movements near the Gaza border. pic.twitter.com/CoQcDYxOq4
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 8, 2023
Currently, there are reports that internecine gunfire has erupted in different parts of Israel and the West Bank. Overnight, there were also reports of sporadic shelling and exchanges of fire in the north between Hezbollah and Israel’s military.
Will a northern front open up? This would likely put Israel in an even greater state of panic as things spiral…
Video of Hezbollah attack on #Israel military position in Shebaa Farms.
— Firas Maksad (@FirasMaksad) October 8, 2023
“Where did it come from?
“From the school grounds down there” pic.twitter.com/XsAD3OenpM
Below is a brief review of major events over the last several hours, courtesy of Academy SITREP:
- Early this morning, Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel firing thousands of rockets in a coordinated air and land assault.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country was now “at war” and has retaliated with massive airstrikes on Hamas targets.
- Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia organization that fought a war with Israel in 2006, said that it was monitoring the situation but has not yet pledged its support to join forces with Hamas in this attack on Israel.
- An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Iran supported the cross-border operation by Hamas, which is not surprising and could partially be in response to the ongoing Saudi Arabia /Israel diplomatic talks.
- Netanyahu has spoken with President Biden and Secretary of Defense Austin said that “The Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”
- While still early, initial reports are coming in indicting over 40 Israelis have been killed along with hundreds more injured.
Fighting along Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip is ongoing Sunday:
Police publish footage of forces battling Hamas terrorists in southern Israel. At least 30 officers have been killed in the fighting. pic.twitter.com/6mE0nH2HB7
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 8, 2023
