Press Release

Iranian Leaders Take Credit For Gaza Rockets, Vow Further Support For Hamas Terrorism

New York, NY, November 21, 2012 … In a series of boastful statements since the intensification of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, a series of high-level Iranian public officials have stepped forward to take credit for providing arms and rockets to terrorists in Gaza, and to volunteer their nation’s full support for further violence against Israel.

“We announce with pride that we support the people of Palestine and Hamas,” Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, said at a parliamentary rally for Palestine.  “We are proud that our help to the people of Palestine includes material and military (support), and these Arab countries that sit and have meetings must know that Palestine is not in need of speeches … in order to help the nation of Palestine, we say to these Arab countries that they must give military help.”

In the past, Hamas rocket squads fired mostly unsophisticated and inaccurate mortars and Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.  But the most recent barrage of more than 800 rockets fired by Hamas has included Iranian made Fajr 5 and Grad missiles either imported from Iran or developed at home with financial training and support for Iran.  Those missiles are capable of reaching the Israeli population centers of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  In the past few days of fighting, several rockets fired from Gaza have landed on or near those cities.

 “In their almost gleeful public statements Iranian leaders have all but taken credit for the violence now unfolding in Gaza and admitted their willing support of terrorism against Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “This is more than a matter of offering moral support.  The Iranian support of Hamas is logistical, tactical and financial.  And the Iranian leadership has now made clear that they are a terrorist state that is openly supporting terrorism against Israel.”

 “It is time for the international community to wake up and recognize the deadly hand of the terrorist Islamic Republic of Iran in aiding and abetting the Hamas assault on Israel,” said Mr. Foxman.

According to reports in the Fars News Agency, several Iranian leaders have indicated that the regime is now stepping up its support for Hamas in Gaza by providing advanced rockets, expertise and materiel.  Those statements, as translated by ADL from the original Farsi, include:

• “No Iron dome will be able to tolerate the missiles of the resistance and there are still many equipment capabilities of the resistance that have not arrived on the war scene yet.”
  – Masoud Jazayeri, Vice Chief of State of the Armed Forces.
• “We cannot send weapons there (to Gaza), but we have given them (Hamas) the necessary technology for the Fajr 5 and today mass quantities of this missile are being produced.  We provide technological and scientific help to any Muslims that are resisting arrogance.”
  – Major General Muhammad Ali Ja’afari, head of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC).

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