Israel, explosives and training in Iran: the US investigation into Hamas

American investigators are looking into whether the Hamas militants who carried out the unprecedented attack in Israel were trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. US officials revealed this to NBC News, specifying that they are also investigating whether Hamas exploited the recent protests at the border barrier to secretly plant the explosives that blew it up last Saturday. If confirmed, these two elements would be yet another example of the support that Iran has provided for decades to Hamas, which would not have been able to conduct an attack of this type, much more sophisticated than its previous operations, without all these years of financing , weapons and training provided by Tehran, US officials add.

«Hamas would not be a fraction of the group it is, neither a political, social and religious entity, nor a terrorist and militant entity, without the financial support, supply of weapons and training from Iran», words of Matthew Levitt, former US counterterrorism official, who, however, is skeptical that evidence of Tehran’s direct role in the attack will emerge. Rarely, explains Lewitt, do the Iranians give direct orders to their acolytes about specific operations: “that’s not how it works.”

According to a 2020 State Department report, Iran provides about $100 million a year to Hamas, along with technology and know-how that allows the Palestinian military organization to build its own rocket arsenal in Gaza, with based on Iranian projects. The White House officially declares that it considers Iran “accomplice” in the attacks, in which more than a thousand Israelis were killed and more than a hundred taken hostage. But at a press conference, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated that the United States cannot currently confirm whether Tehran was previously informed of the attacks or helped prepare them.

Source: IL Tempo

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