ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday denied helping Palestinian Hamas militants plot their attack against Israel, contradicting reports by US media that Tehran greenlit the assault.
“Leveling accusations linked to an Iranian role … are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told reporters, claiming they are made “to justify the West’s support for the [Israeli] regime.”
Kanaani warned that any “stupid action” by Israel would draw a “devastating” response from Iran.
He was responding to a report by the Wall Street Journal claiming that Iran helped Hamas to plot its surprise attack against Israel and gave it the “final go-ahead” in a meeting in Beirut last Monday, citing senior Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah members.
Around 1,200 people have been reported dead on both sides after Hamas militants launched a massive air, ground, and sea offensive and penetrated into Israeli territory on Saturday dawn, triggering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare the next day that they were “embarking on a long and difficult war.”
It marks the bloodiest escalation of the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict in decades, fifty years since the Yom Kippur War.
The Israeli army has reported over 700 dead while Palestinian officials have placed their death toll at 493.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday afternoon ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, saying that electricity, food, and water will be cut off after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had recaptured territories surrounding the besieged Hamas-controlled enclave.
“No electricity, no food, no water, no gas … it is all closed,” Gallant said in a video message.
His statement came nearly an hour after the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed that Israeli airstrikes on Gaza had killed four Israeli hostages and their captors.
EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on Tuesday on the war between Israel and Gaza, according to foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
“I am convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to address the situation in Israel and in the region,” Borrel said on X.
Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in Arab countries to join its campaign dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” against Israel while the US has reiterated its support for Israel, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announcing that Washington would be sending equipment and munitions to Israel.
