As the world braced for a retaliatory Iranian strike, Israel on Monday accused Tehran and its proxy, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, of smuggling weapons into Jordan and the West Bank, undermining stability in the region.
Israeli Foreign Minister Katz said on Monday that a “grave and dangerous situation is unfolding in Iran.”
Katz alleged that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was working with Lebanese Hamas operatives to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan “with the aim of destabilizing the regime.”
Katz said weapons were then smuggled into the West Bank, bringing “dangerous weapons and large amounts of money” to areas such as Judea and Samaria, where the refugee camps are located, “with the aim of creating a pro-Iranian Islamic terror front.”
Katz said Iran’s effective control over the refugee camps in the West Bank left the Palestinian Authority “powerless to act.”
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“We must conduct thorough operations to neutralize terrorist sites like the Jenin refugee camp and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure within the camps,” Katz said, calling such a plan “it is in the shared interest of Israel, many regional countries, and the entire free world to halt the expansion of Iran’s axis of evil.”
Katz’s comments come as Israel prepares for a possible retaliatory attack from Iran for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.
Iranian mourners shout anti-American and anti-Israel slogans during the funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard Abu Shaaban in Tehran, Iran, on August 1. (Morteza Nikoubazlu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Israel immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination, having vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the terrorist group’s October 7 attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and hundreds taken hostage.
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Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants also confirmed the death of their “number two” commander, Fuad Shukr, who was involved in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen.
A worker walks through rubble as a backhoe removes debris from a building damaged by an Israeli air strike in the southern outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday evening. (AP/Hussein Marra)
This comes as mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt are pushing for ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas to end the 10-month war.
Mediators have been trying for months to get the two sides to agree on a three-phase plan that would see Hamas release the remaining hostages it captured in the Oct. 7 attack in exchange for the release of Palestinians held by Israel and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Talks are expected to resume on Thursday.
France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement on Monday supporting the plan, calling for the return of the scores of hostages being held by Hamas and the provision of “unhindered” humanitarian aid.
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The statement, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate tensions in the region.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
