Soleimani developed details that led to Hamas killing of Israelis

A Washington-based think tank published a report suggesting that the Hamas attacks on Israel that have killed at least 1,400 people was the plan of the dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump in January 2020.

The assassinated leader was the man behind a mass murder plot, one hinted at by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who described ‘The Complete Conquest’ of Israel. Hamas has been accused of being a proxy for the Ayatollah regime and carrying out its wishes, an Israeli spokesman Lior Haiat told Fox News. There has been speculation that Iran helped plan the Hamas surprise attack – dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – since the fighting first broke out. A Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) think tank report noted that a propaganda report from Khamenei (pictured).

‘The significance is that, last year, the Leader [Khamenei] gave “The promise of the imminent conquest,” and this year he gave “the announcement of the complete conquest,’ and Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is part of this imminent conquest,” the propaganda read. The think tank claims the plan for mass murder was engineered by Soleimani (pictured).

MEMRI has believed Hamas’ taking what they call a ‘rational’ approach has meant this was in the planning stages for several years. ‘This promise and announcement, along with the clarity and power of [Khamenei’s] statements and positions in his meeting [with leaders and ambassadors of Islamic countries] on the occasion of the Prophet [Muhammad’s] birthday, have profound significance and content.’

Iran was branded a ‘terrorist state’ by Israel last week as the spiraling violence threatened to spill into a major conflict in the Middle East. ‘Iran has had a long relationship with Hamas, and Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support that it’s gotten over many years from Iran. Having said that, when it comes to this specific attack, right now, as we speak, we haven’t seen direct evidence that Iran participated in or helped plan the attack,’ a spokesman for Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Iran has backed Hamas in the past but had remained on the fringes until recent months. ‘That doesn’t mean that it didn’t; we just don’t have the evidence to show it. And as I said, there’s a long relationship between the two.’

Soleimani was killed when an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles at his convoy as it left Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020. Soleimani was often described as the country’s most powerful figure after its supreme leader. Last year, a United Nations expert said that without an imminent threat to life the strike was unlawful.

Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, concluded in her report that the US provided no evidence that would have justified immediate action. ‘Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq,’ she said. ‘But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the US was unlawful.’

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