It was reported last week that the Hamas terrorists trained inside Iran before they massacred Jews 1,400 Jews on October 7th.
The WSJ is reporting that nearly 500 Hamas terrorists, along the the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, trained weeks before the massacre with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps:
In the weeks leading up to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, hundreds of the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s fighters received specialized combat training in Iran, according to people familiar with intelligence related to the assault.
Roughly 500 militants from Hamas and an allied group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, participated in the exercises in September, which were led by officers of the Quds Force, the foreign-operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the people said.
Senior Palestinian officials and Iranian Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of Quds Force, also attended, they said.
Hamas attackers used aerial drones to disable Israeli observation posts and high-tech surveillance equipment. Some used paragliders to fly into Israel. Others rode on motorcycles, commonly used by Iranian paramilitary groups but not by Hamas until Oct. 7.
U.S. officials said Iran has regularly trained militants in Iran and elsewhere, but they have no indications of a mass training right before the attack. U.S. officials and the people familiar with the intelligence said they had no information to suggest Iran conducted
training specifically to prepare for the events of Oct. 7.On Wednesday, Israel’s military offered some of its most blunt comments yet on Iran’s role in aiding Hamas and other militant groups.
“Before the war, Iran directly assisted Hamas with money, training and weapons and technological know-how,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman. “Even now, Iran is helping Hamas with intelligence.”
The Wall Street Journal, citing senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials, has reported that the Quds Force helped plan the attack and agreed that it could go ahead at a meeting in Beirut on Oct. 2 with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. An adviser to the Syrian government and a European official gave the same account of Iran’s involvement.
The US disputes that Iran helped plan the attack, claiming Iranians were surprised by the massacre:
These accounts of the Oct. 2 meeting have been disputed by senior U.S. officials and others familiar with intelligence surrounding the attacks. Several U.S. officials said Washington has “compelling” intelligence indicating that Iranian leaders were surprised by the Hamas assault.
“The information that we have does not show a direct connection to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 as it relates to Iran. Again, that’s something that we’ll continue to look closely at,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week.
But Hamas has been confirming this every since they waged war on Israel:
Hamas officials have boasted of Iran’s support since the attacks. “Hezbollah and Iran supported us with weapons, expertise, and technology,” Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official in Doha, said in an interview with Al Arabiya.
As the attacks started on Oct. 7, according to Western and Egyptian officials, Hamas contacted IRGC and Hezbollah officials abroad to inform them that the assault had started.
Since then, the IRGC, Hezbollah, Hamas and other militias in the region say they have been in close contact to coordinate their activities. Quds Force commander Qaani was in recent days in Lebanon to consult with Hamas and Hezbollah officials, militant leaders and an IRGC adviser said.
The IRGC reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It operates independently of Iran’s elected government and its conventional military, with its own navy and business operations.
Iran has long provided training to militants across the Middle East, including Gaza militants, Afghan mercenaries who fight in Syria, Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, Shiite forces from Iraq and the Houthis from Yemen, said Saeid Golkar, an IRGC expert at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Biden officials seem so stupid sometimes. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas were trying to keep this planned massacre as quiet as possible to keep from alerting Israel. I’m sure there were some Iranian officials surprised by the attack because they weren’t privy to the secret information. It’s not hard to figure out. From the first days since the attack Biden officials have been reluctant to even blame Iran, even with all the reporting and claims by Hamas leaders giving them credit for it.
But this reporting by WSJ does answer more question as to why Israel didn’t know about the attack.