DUBAI: Iran’s top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday (Oct 10) that Tehran had not been involved in the Hamas group’s weekend attack on Israel, but he hailed what he called Israel’s “irreparable” military and intelligence defeat.
In his first televised speech since the attack, Khamenei said “we kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime”.
“This destructive earthquake has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily … The Zionist regime’s own actions are to blame for this disaster,” said Khamenei.
Iran has long backed the Hamas group, which controls the Gaza Strip and rejects Israel’s right to exist.
Israel said earlier on Tuesday it had re-established control over the Gaza border and was planting mines where militants had toppled the barrier during their bloody weekend assault, after another night of relentless Israeli air raids on the enclave.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday there was “no question that there’s a degree of complicity” by Iran in supporting Hamas, but President Joe Biden’s administration has not seen tangible evidence Iran was directly involved in plotting the current attack.
The Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah also fired a salvo of rockets onto northern Israel on Monday after three of its members were killed in Israeli shelling on Lebanon.
The exchange of fire marks a significant expansion of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants to the Israeli-Lebanese border further north. Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war in 2006.
Source: CNA
