Iran is helping Hamas with intelligence and incitement
Iran is assisting Hamas by supplying it with intelligence and is also boosting anti-Israel incitement worldwide, Israel Defence Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated on Wednesday morning, day 19 of Israel’s war against the terror organization.
Israeli soldiers in northern Israel on Oct. 24, 2023. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS
Iran also helped Hamas with training, weapons, funding and technological knowledge, said Hagari.
“Around the world, the proxies are working, from Yemen, Lebanon—instructions come from one place—Iran,” he added.
In response to new U.S. deployments in the Middle East, Hagari said they reflect the fact that Iran and its proxies are destabilizing the region.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday citing U.S. defence officials, the U.S. military is scrambling to deploy at least 12 additional air defence systems across the Middle East before the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
The systems include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Battery en route to Saudi Arabia from Fort Bliss, as well as 11 Patriot batteries that are heading to Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there is “a very direct connection” between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and proxy militias threatening to attack American forces stationed around the Middle East.
Kirby said the U.S. is “deeply concerned about the potential of any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead.”
Strikes in Gaza Continue
The Israeli Air Force had conducted wide-scale airstrikes in Gaza over the past few hours, the IDF said on Wednesday morning. Among the targets hit were Hamas tunnel shafts, military headquarters, weapons warehouses, mortar launchers and anti-tank missile launchers, according to the military.
The commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Battalion, Tayseer Mubasher, a former head of the Hamas naval force, was also killed, according to Hagari. Mubasher had planned strategic terror attacks against Israel and was the main Hamas commander in the Khan Younis sector, he added.
Overnight Tuesday, the IDF struck Hamas’ emergency operational apparatus, including war rooms, infrastructure and military headquarters.
“Hamas’ emergency operational apparatus was responsible for setting up blockades that prevented Gazans from evacuating to safer areas in the southern Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated.
“Additionally, the IDF struck military infrastructure and command centers of Hamas’ security apparatus, which is responsible for overseeing the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip and arresting and imprisoning Hamas’s opponents,” it said.
The IDF spokesman reiterated Israel’s call for Gaza residents to flee to the south.
“Hamas use schools and hospitals, they hide there. Gazan citizens, don’t let them exploit you. Head south. We are setting up broad humanitarian aid with Egypt and the United States, bringing in food, water. When the war ends, the population can return,” said Hagari.
On Tuesday afternoon, acting on precise Shin Bet intelligence, the IDF killed a number of senior Hamas operatives, including Abed Alrahman, deputy commander of the Nuseirat Battalion, who took part in the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on Oct. 7; Khalil Muhajez, deputy commander of the Shati Battalion; and Khalil Tatri, deputy commander of the Sheikh Radwan Battalion.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli naval forces targeted a Hamas cell that had attempted to infiltrate Israeli territory by sea in the area of Kibbutz Zikim. Several terrorists were killed, and the IAF struck the military compound in Gaza from which the Hamas divers had launched the attack.
“We will kill anyone who tries to infiltrate Israeli territory,” said Hagari.
The Lebanese Front
Meanwhile, five missile and rocket squads in Lebanon had been eliminated by the IDF in the past 24 hours, said Hagari.
On Tuesday, the IDF targeted three terrorist cells in the border area.
Two cells responsible for rocket and mortar attacks on IDF posts in the area of Netu’a and Elkosh in northern Israeli were hit by an Israeli drone. The third cell was hit by Israeli forces as it attempted to launch anti-tank missiles at Israeli territory adjacent to Kibbutz Yiftach.
No Israeli injuries were reported.
Also on Tuesday, an IAF helicopter struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon.
The IDF said on Monday that it had destroyed over 20 Hezbollah anti-tank missile squads since the beginning of the war.
TPS
