An Iranian general on Wednesday walked back his claim that the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel was “revenge” for the assassination of an Iranian general four years ago, telling Al-Araby his comments earlier in the day were “incompletely conveyed” and misunderstood.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif had linked the Hamas attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Stormto a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2020, that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Sharif also said the killing of a top Iranian military adviser by Israel this week would draw a military response from Iran “directly or indirectly.”
The U.S. Justice Department, in a heavily redacted 2020 memorandum, said Soleimani had commanded the guard’s elite Quds Force since the late 1990s and was a “key architect of lran’s campaign of terrorism, assassinations and violence throughout the Middle East.”
The Iranian government, which helps fund Hamas, has repeatedly denied involvement in the October attack that killed 1,200 Israelis in communities along the Gaza border. Hamas issued a statement Wednesday rejecting Sharif’s claim linking the attack to Iran, saying the attack was primarily a response to “dangers that threaten al-Aqsa Mosque” in Jerusalem, which had seen clashes between Israeli settlers and Muslim worshippers.
Sharif, however, did not retreat from his pledge of a military response for the killing of Iranian Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi, targeted Monday in an Israeli airstrike on his Damascus home. Israel had accused Mousavi of being a key player in Tehran’s efforts to supply weapons to Hamas and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah.
“Iran will take harsh and strong revenge,” Sharif said, accusing Israel of killing Mousavi as a way of “escaping from its defeat in Gaza and its failures there, and to divert the world’s attention from a war crime.”
War in Gaza:Israeli adviser to meet with US official
Developments:
∎ Israeli rockets rained down on central and southern Gaza early Wednesday, hammering areas where Palestinians fleeing fighting in northern Gaza had gathered on orders from the Israeli military.
∎ The U.N. and member countries have spent $622 million in aid to Gaza and the West Bank, 51% of the $1.2 billion flash appeal sought by the U.N. when the war began.
∎ The Palestinian death toll rose to 21,110 and 55,243 injured after almost 200 people were killed in the last 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry announced. Israeli authorities, who have generally confirmed Gaza’s death tolls, said the deaths include 8,000 Hamas operatives − in addition to 1,000 militants killed during and immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks.
∎ Palestinian telecommunications officials said internet and telephone services are being restored across Gaza after a nearly total blackout that severely hampered rescue and aid operations. It was at least the sixth major outage since the war began.
Iranian-American group urges Biden not to support ‘Israel’s disastrous war’
The U.S. is at risk of being dragged into an “all-out regional war” in the Middle East, and the Biden administration must secure a cease-fire instead of “blindly supporting Israel’s disastrous war in Gaza,” the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group that supports democratic change in Iran, said in a statement released Wednesday. A cease-fire can provide time for diplomacy to address the underlying issues fueling the war, the council said.
“The alternative increasingly looks like a broader conflict that spills across multiple borders and pulls in the United States,” it said. “President Biden must act before it is too late.”
Erdogan, Netanyahu clash over ‘Hitler’ remark
Turkish and Israeli leaders engaged in a war of words Wednesday over Israeli actions against Hamas militants in Gaza described by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “no different” from those of Adolf Hitler. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck back, accusing Erdogan of carrying out a genocide against Kurds and holding a “world record number” of opposition journalists in jails.
“Erdogan … is the last person who can preach morality to us,” Netanyahu said on social mediaadding that Israel has “the most moral army in the world.” War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz, a political foe of Netanyahu, dismissed Erdogan’s remarks as blatant distortions of reality and a desecration of the Holocaust’s memory.”
Israeli air force officer defends Gaza bombings
The Israeli Air Force chief of staff on Wednesday firmly rejected repeated global claims that Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza are indiscriminate. Brig. Gen. Omer Tischler said the Israeli military is conducting a “precise, focused” military campaign stressing the protection of civilians. Evacuations are ordered in advance and munitions designed to minimize collateral damage are used, he said. And assaults are monitored in real time and can be aborted if the dangers to civilians becomes too great, he said.
But Israel has acknowledged that its campaign in Gaza has killed more civilians than the militants it is targeting.
“In war, mistakes can happen,” Tischler said. “While they are exceptional, they are still made. We study them, learn from them, and make changes to our process as a result.”
Israeli defense minister says war could take ‘months or years’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel’s parliament the war will be long and bring heavy costs but that “justification is the highest it can be.” Gallant, in translation by the Times of Israelvowed Israel would punish Hamas “whether it takes months or years.” He said Israel faces attacks from seven fronts and has struck back almost all of them.
Gallant’s pledge came days after an Egyptian peace plan drew a cool response from Israel and Hamas. The plan, if accepted, would include Hamas releasing the more than 100 remaining hostages in exchange for Israel letting all Palestinians out of its prisons. Nearly 8,000 Palestinians are held by Israel on security-related charges or convictions, according to Palestinian figures. The plan also calls Israel to withdraw from the battered enclave and militants to halt rocket attacks on Israel.
