Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terrorist group that works alongside Hamas in Gaza, openly declared last week that the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv are made possible by the support of Iran’s regime.
The Iranian regime provides food, training, various weaponry and funding to the PIJ, according to PIJ Official Ramez Al-Halabi.
“I am proud to say that the rockets that are used to pound Tel Aviv have an Iranian signature on them, the signature of Qasem Soleimani,” says Al-Halabi in a translation by MEMRI.
Soleimani was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who was killed in January 2020 by a U.S. airstrike.
“Almost every home in Gaza has a picture of Qasem Soleimani” and “a picture of the Islamic Republic,” according to Al-Halabi.
“The contours of the victories in Palestine as of late were outlined with the blood of Qasem Soleimani, Iranian blood,” says Al-Halabi.
Hamas, the terrorist organization in control of the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah in Lebanon also receive weapons and funding from the Iranian regime, Senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials have repeatedly confirmed.
“The regime has sent at least $100 million a year to Hamas, and may have increased that support to as high as $350 million a year in 2019, even while the regime claimed they didn't have enough money to buy medicine for the Iranian people,” said former State Department Special Advisor on Iran Gabriel Noronha to The Foreign Desk.
As violence against Israel continues, the Biden administration is currently engaged with Iran in negotiations to restore the 2015 JCPOA.
This move would “give Iran $90 billion in cash on day one, with zero restrictions on how Iran uses that money,” said Noronha.
“Iran is just as responsible as Hamas for the rockets killing civilians in Israel today” and is expected to use money freed up by sanctions relief to further support and fund its terrorist proxies, he said.
With this in mind, Noronha says the Biden administration should be enforcing U.S. sanctions on Iran and negotiating a deal that forces Iran to stop supporting terror groups like the ones currently inflicting terror on Israel, arguably the most crucial ally to the U.S. in the Middle East.
Instead, it appears the U.S. is taking a different path in easing up its restrictions on the regime, allowing Iran to increase their oil sales by around $5 billion without any sanctions on the companies, which is in direct violation of U.S. law, according to Noronha.
