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Agence France-Presse

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday the October attacks on Israel by Tehran-backed Hamas militants were in part a retaliation of the US killing in 2020 of a top Iranian commander.
The Palestinian armed group rejected earlier remarks by a Guards spokesman appearing to suggest that a key motivation for the October 7 attacks was to avenge Qassem Soleimani’s death on Iran’s behalf.
Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the death of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official figures.
Israel responded with a withering offensive that has killed more than 21,100 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.




Iran, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the deadly attacks as a “success” but denied any direct involvement.
“Undoubtedly, part of the great historic victory … is due to the efforts of General Qassem Soleimani,” Ramezan Sharif, spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said of the Hamas attacks.
Israel air strike kills high-ranking Iranian general in Syria
Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq on January 3, 2020.
“One can consider the (Hamas) operation’s success as part of the resistance’s revenge against his cowardly assassination,” Sharif was quoted by as saying Fars news agency.
He said that “the 70-year oppression, the occupation, insults to the al-Aqsa mosque, and the siege and massacre of the defenceless Palestinians” were also among the motives for the Hamas attack.
Sharif earlier told a news conference in Tehran that the Hamas attacks on October 7 were among “acts of revenge” for Soleimani’s killing which was carried out “by the Americans and with the support of the Zionists (Israel)”.
Those remarks, which Sharif later said were “misunderstood”, drew a rare rebuke from Hamas which said “there is no truth” in them.
“We have announced on several occasions the motivations and reasons behind Operation al-Aqsa Flood, namely the dangers facing al-Aqsa mosque,” said Hamas in a statement.
An Israeli strike on Syria’s capital on Monday targeted Razi Moussavi, the most senior commander in the Quds Force to be killed outside Iran since Soleimani in 2020.
The al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem is a site holy to both Muslims and Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
The compound, also home to the Dome of the Rock, is Islam’s holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It lies directly above the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews are allowed to pray.
In recent years nationalist Jews have made multiple visits to the compound, sparking anger among Palestinians who see this as a provocation.


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Israel-Gaza war

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards link Hamas attack on Israel to general’s 2020 killing

The 2020 funeral for top Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike. File photo: EPA-EFE

Houthi attacks and US strikes heighten risk of wider Middle East war

The USS Carney firing at Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea on October 19. File photo: US Navy


Israel expands Gaza offensive, as Hamas claims 195 Palestinians killed in 24 hours: ‘it was a night of hell’

Palestinians recover a body from the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA-EFE

Palestinian Ibrahim Al-Haj Youssef, who lost four of his children and his wife in an Israeli air strike, stands amid debris, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Maghazi camp, in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

US retaliates in Iraq with strikes on 3 sites used by Iran-backed militias

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin III at the Pentagon on September 1, 2021. The US carried out strikes on three sites used by Iran-backed forces in Iraq on Monday after an attack wounded American troops earlier in the day. Photo: AFP

Pentagon says Iran drone struck chemical tanker near India, expanding Red Sea risks amid Israel-Gaza war

Iranian army officials inspect homemade drones in Tehran. The US is blaming a strike on a tanker near India on Iranian drones. Photo: Handout /Iranian Army office/AFP

News

World

Middle East

Spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed deadly October 7 attack on Israel was revenge for Soleimani killing
Hamas promptly denied the claim, in a rare public spat between the Palestinian militant group and its main sponsor


Hamas in a rare public spat with its main sponsor after a Guards spokesman appeared to suggest that a key motivation for the October 7 attacks was to avenge Qassem Soleimani’s death on Iran’s behalf.
