Payam Javan: Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, reportedly received support from Iran in planning the October 7 attack on Israel, according to a spokesperson for the group, Ghazi Hamad. He claimed that Iran played a key role in engineering the attack that resulted in over 1,200 casualties. While Hamad implicated other countries and organizations, he did not disclose names, attributing the violence to retaliation against attacks on Muslims by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

A Wall Street Journal report stated that senior members of both Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah revealed Iranian security officials’ involvement in planning the attack. The decision to launch the assault allegedly received approval at a meeting in Beirut the previous Monday. Barakeh acknowledged past support from Iran and Hezbollah but emphasized Hamas’s independence since the 2014 Gaza war.

Tehran, a key backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah, has not publicly admitted involvement in the recent attack. Hamas, in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007, had maintained a relatively low profile in recent years, focusing on economic aspects. Other Palestinian groups, like Islamic Jihad, have carried out repeated attacks on Israel in the interim. The recent violence followed a call for violence against Israel by Iran’s supreme leader, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, though Iran has not acknowledged direct involvement.