Israel will pay a heavy price after Gaza attack, Iran warns Israel-Palestine conflict news
The head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tells the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader: ‘We are with you to the end of this road.’
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Palestinians are “not alone” in their fight against Israel, which faces a second day of airstrikes on Gaza.
“Today, all anti-Zionist jihadist forces are on the scene in a united formation working to liberate Jerusalem and uphold the rights of the Palestinian people,” IRGC Major-General Hussein Salami said in a statement on his Sepa News website.
“We are with you until the end of this path and let Palestine and Palestinians know that they are not alone,” he told visiting Islamic Jihad group leader Ziad al-Nakhla at a meeting in Tehran.
Israel said it had launched a “preemptive” operation against Islamic Jihad on Friday to avert an imminent attack after days of tension on the Gaza border.
A senior commander of the group was killed in an airstrike on Gaza City on Friday, one of a wave of attacks on the territory.
A five-year-old girl was among the 15 people killed in the Israeli bombardment, the Gaza Health Ministry said. More than 100 people were injured.
Palestinian fighters fired rockets into Israel during the territory’s deadliest flare-up since last year’s war.
Israeli forces continued to target the Gaza Strip with airstrikes for a second day.
Nida Ibrahim explains that tensions have risen since Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad leader in the occupied West Bank on Monday ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/zX2okqgBdi
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 6, 2022
‘A heavy price’
Salami stressed that the Palestinian response was the beginning of a “new chapter” and that Israel would “pay another heavy price for the latest crime”.
“The Palestinian resistance is stronger today than in the past,” he said, adding that armed groups have found “the ability to wage major battles.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israel’s “brutal attack” on Gaza.
According to a statement from President Ibrahim Raisi’s office, Israel has “once again shown its occupying and aggressive nature to the world.”
Iran is a supporter of Islamic Jihad and Al-Nakhala met Raisi and other officials during his visit.
Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons to Palestinian groups in Gaza. In March last year, it said it intercepted two Iranian drones carrying weapons to Gaza.
