The WSJ with a bombshell report warns of widespread conflict in the Middle East by revealing that Iran planned and aided Hamas in planning the attack. In fact, the WSJ publishes details of the joint operation against Israel.
In many Arab capitals there is intense concern that a major regional conflict is now in the making as the WSJ (US news) directly targets Iran for the bloodshed in Israel!
Iran allegedly helped Hamas plan the surprise attack on Israel, senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials claim.
According to a Wall Street Journal report Iranian security officials approved Hamas's plan for the terror strike against Israel at a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon last Monday.
Senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials say Iran's Revolutionary Guards have been working with Hamas since August on plans for land, air and sea attacks.
This attack has so far claimed the lives of over 1,000 people, more than half of whom are Israelis.
"A direct Iranian role would bring Tehran's long-standing conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
"Senior Israeli security officials have vowed to hit Iran's leadership if Tehran is found responsible for the killing of Israelis ," the US newspaper reported.
And it continues:
"The effort to bring Iran's allies to war against Israel under a unified command was spearheaded by Ismail Qaani, the leader of the Quds Force."
The Quds Force is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations.
Qaani initiated coordination among several militias surrounding Israel in April during a meeting in Lebanon, the Wall Street Journal reported, where Hamas began working more closely with other groups such as Hezbollah for the first time.
Representatives of those groups have met with Quds Force leaders at least twice a week in Lebanon since August to discuss last weekend's attack on Israel and what happens next.
Qaani participated in some of these meetings along with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Jihad leader al-Nakhallah and Saleh al-Arouri, the military chief of Hamas.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian attended at least two of the meetings.
The Iranian official was clear:
"If Iran is attacked, it will respond with missile attacks on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, and send Iranian fighters to Israel from Syria to attack cities in northern and eastern Israel."
The operation was intended to strike Israel, while it seemed mired in internal political divisions. The aim was also to derail the acceleration of US-brokered talks to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which Iran saw as threatening , senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials said.
Israel proceeded to the largest mobilization since the official establishment of its state, calling to arms 300,000 reservists - for starters - within 48 hours!
According to the IDF spokesman, 100,000 troops will initially begin the ground operation and enter Gaza. At the same time, the northern front on the border with Lebanon and Hezbollah will be strengthened.
The Israeli Army has begun installing additional artillery positions near the Gaza-Israel border while four Divisions have been deployed in the area with three adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
The ground operation is expected to begin in the next 24-48 hours.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that he had ordered a "Total Siege" of the Gaza Strip with no food, fuel or electricity allowed to enter the Gaza Strip along with anything else.
Gallant further stated, " We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly."
The situation is extremely difficult for the Israeli Army and the fear that exists now goes by the name of Hezbollah. The military penetration of the Israeli Army into Gaza is sure to cause bloodbath unrest.
Will Hezbollah and the other organizations or Iran stay out?
A little while ago, the Hezbollah spokesman said:
"Palestine is not Ukraine. If the US intervenes immediately, all US locations in the region will become legitimate targets of the axis of resistance and face our attacks.
And on that day there will be no red line"
A new war with Hezbollah now looks increasingly likely. An engagement now with Hezbollah while it is already at war and activating the Reserve Forces is now more likely than later when the Israeli Army would be unprepared for such a conflict.
We remind you that Hezbollah has a large stockpile of anti-ship missiles. Its capabilities have evolved significantly since then thanks to Iran.
It is worth noting that Hamas announced at dawn the "successful outcome" of a new operation on the southern front in which it kidnapped an unknown number of settlers.
Hamas claims that the number of hostages exceeds 300.
'There are still 7 communities inside Israel where there are terrorists, Hamas gunmen, fighting inside civilian communities' Lt Col Richard Hecht from the Israel Defense Forces spoke to #BBCBreakfast from Tel Aviv about the latest situation in Israel
Hamas' deception operation: How it spent 2 years building a "fake" image to fool Israel
For at least two years Hamas presented a "fake" picture of its intentions to ensure that Israel would be taken by surprise when it finally launched its bloody attack.
The above was reported to Reuters by a source close to the organization, revealing aspects of the "deception campaign" that preceded the shocking attack that began on Saturday, and has so far caused the death of at least 700 Israelis.
This campaign had a two-fold goal, according to the agency's source: On the one hand, Hamas had to convince Israel that it did not want armed conflict, while on the other hand it had to ensure that there would not be the slightest leak about the its precise military plans.
Based on this testimony, and that of three other sources connected to the Israeli authorities, Reuters pieces together the puzzle of the "preparation" of the surprise attack, which many parallel to the 9/11 strike against the US.
"Hamas has been giving Israel the impression that it is not ready for battle... It has used an unprecedented tactic to mislead Israel in recent months, creating the impression that it is unwilling to engage on the battlefield while preparing this massive offensive " , says the source close to Hamas.
According to the same person, while Israel thought it had "conflict-weary" Hamas under control thanks to the financial incentives it offered Gaza workers, the organization's fighters were training intensively, often in… public view.
A linchpin of Hamas's plan was to convince Israel that the organization cared more about ensuring workers in the Gaza Strip had access to jobs across the border, and that it was not at all interested in starting a new war.
In preparation for its attack, Hamas had built a fake "Israeli settlement" in Gaza where its fighters trained to occupy it, even taking videos of the exercises they carried out there. "Surely the Israelis would have seen them, but they were convinced they had no intention of getting involved in a war," says the source.
After the 2021 conflict with Hamas, Israel sought to create a basic level of economic stability in Gaza by offering financial incentives, such as thousands of job permits so Gazans could work in Israel or the West Bank, where wages in construction or in the fields they can be up to 10 times higher.
“We thought that the fact that they were coming to work and bring money to Gaza would create some calm. We made a mistake" , said a representative of the Israeli Army to the agency .
"They made us believe they wanted money, but all this time they were training with drills," a source from Israel's security forces told Reuters.
In the context of the "theatre" it played, Hamas refrained for the last 2 years from military operations against Israel, an abstention that had even caused a lot of criticism from its supporters, who believed that it now only cares about money.
Another important part of Hamas's plan was to ensure that there was no leakage to Israel, which until recently was renowned for its ability to "infiltrate" Islamist groups and monitor their movements.
Even senior Hamas officials did not know the exact plan of the attack before it entered the final stretch. In their preparation, the 1,000 Hamas fighters who eventually took part in the attack had no idea what they were training for , the Reuters source said.
No comments:
Post a Comment