Hamas denies claim that Oct. 7 attack was ‘in revenge’ for Iranian general’s death

ISTANBUL (AA) – Palestinian resistance group Hamas has denied Iranian claims that its October 7 attack against Israel was in revenge for the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in January 2020.

Ramadan Sharif, a spokesman for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Wednesday that the Hamas attack was a retaliatory action for Soleimani’s assassination, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.

“Hamas denies the validity of the remarks made by the IRGC spokesman regarding the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and its motives,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.

Hamas stressed that Israeli threats to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem were one of the motives for its attack.

Al Aqsa — under Israeli occupation — is the third holiest place in Islam, its first prayer direction (Qibla) and the site for the Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) ascension to the heavens.

“All actions carried out by the Palestinian resistance are in response to the Israeli occupation and its continued aggression against our people and our sanctities,” it added.

Nearly 1,130 Israelis are purported to have been killed in the events of October 7 which include a Hamas attack followed by an indiscriminate retaliatory operation by the Israeli military forces. Since then, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip, killing at least 21,110 people, most of them women and children, and injuring 55,243 others.

The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

Tel Aviv’s hardline rightwing government has vowed to “destroy Hamas” and ensure the release of all Israelis taken prisoner during the October attack. Some of them were returned during a temporary truce in November in exchange for some Palestinian prisoners.