The Israeli government launched “Operation Rising Lion” in the early morning hours of Friday with targeted airstrikes against some of the highest-ranking members of the Iranian armed forces. The operation followed the United Nations condemning Iran on Thursday for its violations of international law. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, accused Iran last week, prior to the resolution, of keeping secret uranium enrichment sites and “sanitizing” them to hide them from IAEA inspectors.
Iran responded to the IAEA resolution condemning its nuclear activities by announcing the establishment of yet another uranium enrichment facility. Hours later, the Israeli Air Force penetrated Iranian airspace, targeting top Iranian officials. As of Monday, the Iranian regime has reportedly lost about 20 top military and security officials, according to Israel.
Tehran has confirmed the deaths of some of these leaders, most prominently Major General Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization responsible for maintaining relations with and coordinating the operations of Iran’s terrorist proxy groups. Also eliminated in those strikes were the chief of staff of the armed forces of Iran, Major General Mohammad Bagheri; IRGC air force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh; and at least two top nuclear scientists.
While Hamas is, in its totality, a terrorist organization, it keeps an “armed wing” in Gaza that it claims is separate from its “political” actors, known as the “al-Qassam Brigades.” The al-Qassam Brigades issued the statement celebrating Salami, Bagheri, and the other senior Iranian leaders.
“With pride and great honor, al-Qassam Brigades mourn our Islamic Ummah’s martyrs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the senior commanders of the Iranian Armed Forces who were martyred as a result of the ongoing Zionist aggression against the Republic,” the statement read, according to Al Mayadeen, a propaganda outlet believed to be linked to Hezbollah. “At the forefront: Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, and Gholam Ali Rashid, Commander of Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.”
“Despite knowing that such open and significant support would come at a high price of blood and sacrifice, they never stood down, until their lives were sealed with martyrdom at the hands of the enemy of this Ummah,” the terrorists declared. Ummah is an Arabic word meaning the global Islamic community.
The Hamas wing declared that, over time, the world would see the “true weight of their pivotal role” in supporting global jihad, and in particular supporting antisemitic Islamic terrorism in Gaza. It praised the dead commanders as a “cornerstone in our resistance against the Zionist enemy.”
The statement concluded with an expression of hope that Allah would eliminate Israel, referring to the country as a “cancerous tumor.”
The greater Hamas organization similarly credited Iran, the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, with its role in aiding international jihad in a statement on Friday condemning Israel’s attacks — contradicting supporters of the Iranian Islamist regime who have downplayed the influence of the regime on global terrorism for years.
“Iran is today paying the price for its steadfast positions in support of Palestine and its resistance, and its adherence to its independent national decision,” the Hamas statement on Friday read, according to a translation by the news agency Reuters.
The Iranian Islamist regime has for decades funneled billions of dollars into jihadist terrorist organizations in the region, both Shiite and Sunni groups. Hamas is believed to have been one of the groups most benefitting from this largesse; the U.S. State Department has estimated in reports that Iran has funded Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to the tune of $100 million a year.
This money allowed Hamas to organize and execute its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,200 people and abduction of over 200. About 53 of those hostages are believed to remain in Hamas captivity to this day, but only about 20 are believed to still be alive.
In February 2024, the Israeli government revealed the discovery of documents in Gaza indicating that Iran was directly funneling money to Yahya Sinwar, the late Gaza leader of Hamas.
“We found official Hamas documents from 2020 detailing the funds transferred by Iran between the years 2014 and 2020 to Hamas and to Sinwar,” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at the time. “More than one hundred and fifty million dollars were transferred from Iran to Hamas.”
The “political” leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in July 2024 during a visit to Tehran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, by an explosion at his quarters. The Iranian regime blamed Israel for the attack.
Highlighting the proximity of Hamas to the Iranian regime, Haniyeh appeared on Iranian television kissing Pezeshkian shortly before his demise.
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