Iran is behind attack on Israel – WSJ

Representatives of Iran's security services helped Hamas plan a surprise attack on Israel.

This follows from a statement by the American Wall Street Journal, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

According to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas's surprise attack on Israel. They gave the "green light" for the attack at a meeting in Beirut last Monday.

Officers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been working with Hamas since August to develop an air, land, and sea invasion plan.

Details of the operation were finalized during several meetings in Beirut involving IRGC officers and representatives of four Iranian-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon.

US officials said they had not seen evidence of Tehran's involvement in the attack.

"At this time, we do not have any information to confirm this information," said an American official representative of these meetings.

However, a European official and adviser to the Syrian government provided the same information about Iran's involvement in preparing the attack as senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Iranian delegation to the UN in New York did not respond to a request for comment.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised the attacks, saying on microblog X that "the Zionist regime will be destroyed by the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces in the entire region."

A direct Iranian role would bring Tehran's long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of a broader conflict in the Middle East.

Senior Israeli security officials have vowed to strike Iran's leadership if Tehran is found responsible for the killing of the Israelis.

The IRGC's broader plan is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides—Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel blamed Iran, saying it was behind the attacks, albeit indirectly.

The ability of the Palestinian and Lebanese armed forces to coordinate with Iran will be tested in the coming days.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Israel has officially declared a state of war.

On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had entered a long war.