A senior Iranian official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in early April was reportedly involved in the “planning and execution” of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
According to the US-based Middle East News Agency, the United Council of the Islamic Revolutionary Army of Iran, which is linked to Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khamenei, on April 3 paid “mourning and gratitude” to Mohammad Reza Zahedi. published a letter stating the following. Media Research Institute (MEMRI) This letter has been translated by MEMRI.
“The strategic role of Martyr Zahedi in strengthening and consolidating the resistance front and planning and executing the Al-Aqsa flood is part of the great pride that turns the silent efforts of this great commander into eternal history.” “The struggle against the occupation by the Zionist regime,” the Iranian group wrote, according to the MEMRI translation.
“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” is the name given to Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages.
A woman touches a photo of an Israeli missing and detained in Gaza displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv on Saturday, October 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakoulis, File)
Zahedi, who was the commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force Unit 18,000, was killed along with six other senior Iranian military officials on April 1 after an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. In addition, Mr. Zahedi was previously the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force and the Imam Hussein Division.
Iran fired more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles toward Israel on Saturday night in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes. Israeli air defense systems were able to intercept most of it.
Khamenei used to was denied Tehran was behind Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“This is essentially a formal admission by a senior Iranian regime official that Iran was indeed involved in the planning and execution of the October 7 attack,” MEMRI wrote.
