WSJ: Iran helped prepare Hamas attacks

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say they are holding 130 Israelis captive

Hamas and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad say they are holding 130 Israelis capturedreports The Times of Israel. Israeli soldiers are also believed to be among the prisoners.

An Islamic Jihad cell had previously announced that the hostages would not be allowed to go home “until all our prisoners are released.” There are thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

According to the German Foreign Ministry, a number of German citizens with Israeli nationality have also been taken hostage. And Mexico’s foreign minister has reported that Hamas has also captured a Mexican man and woman.

WSJ: Iran helped prepare Hamas attacks

Hamas’s attacks on Israel are planned weeks in advance in cooperation with Iranreports The Wall Street Journal based on highly placed sources within Hamas and Hezbollah. According to the newspaper, security officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards gave a “green light” for the operation last Monday during a meeting with Hamas in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are said to have been working with Hamas for raids “by air, land and sea” since August.

Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad told the BBC on Sunday that Iran provided support and assistance for the attacks and had pledged to “stand by the Palestinian fighters until Palestine and Jerusalem are liberated.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, applauded Hamas’ attacks this weekend in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “God willing, the cancer of the illegal Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and resistance forces across the region,” he wrote in a post by X owner Elon Musk has been flagged as against the rules of the platform, but has not been removed.

In an interview with CNN US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States “has not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this specific attack, but there is certainly a long-standing relationship.”

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This blog will follow NRC the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip, and related developments. Read our blog from Sunday here.