The leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke at the funeral of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Tehran. Haniyeh said in the speech that Soleimani had helped equip and build Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, writes the Times of Israel.
-What Soleimani has done for Palestine and the resistance struggle has given us today a position where we have power and steadfastness, Haniyeh said.
He also referred to Soleimani as “the martyr of Jerusalem”. Haniyeh said the death of the Iranian general would not deter them from fighting Israel. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad
“We will continue to confront the Zionists,” Haniyeh said at the funeral.
As leader of the Quds Force, Soleimani was responsible for Iran’s operations abroad. He managed and funded a large network of Iran-loyal militias and terrorist groups throughout the Middle East. Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip receive, among other things, hundreds of millions of kroner a year in support from the Iranians.
While Islamic Jihad has had very close ties with Iran, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has been careful not to forge too close ties with the Islamic Republic. Iran is Shia Muslim, while Hamas is Sunni Muslim. They stood on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war. And Hamas relies on close ties with Arab countries such as Egypt, which sees Iran as a regional enemy.
When Islamic Jihad fired more than 450 rockets at Israel in November, Hamas refused to take part in the fighting. It has probably annoyed several people in the Iranian leadership. An Iranian newspaper went so far as to accuse Hamas of allying itself cooperation/' target='_blank'>cooperation-with-israel/' target='_blank'>cooperation-with-israel/' target='_blank'>with Israel by refusing to take part in the rocket attacks.
The fact that the Hamas leader is now standing on a pulpit in Tehran with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other leaders in the Islamic Republic can be interpreted as a signal that Hamas wants closer cooperation/' target='_blank'>cooperation with Iran in the future. . Pictures from Soleimani’s funeral show that the Hamas leader is only a few meters behind Iran’s supreme leader. In any case, there is no doubt that Iran wants greater influence in Gaza – to pose an even greater threat to Israel.
With the terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon north of Israel, Shiite militias on the Syrian-Israeli border in the northeast and Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the south – the Islamic Republic can threaten Israel from several fronts.
For as the crowd shouted at Solemaini’s funeral, the goal of the Islamic Republic is “death over America” and “death over Israel.”