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(i24) Sources say Esmail Qaani, leader of Iran’s Quds Force, recently met with leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
A top Iranian official has reportedly begun rallying allies across the Middle East to launch a fresh wave of attacks on Israeli targets, marking a new phase of a protracted shadow war between the regional rivals.
According to anonymous sources familiar with the development cited by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Esmail Qaani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, has met with a series of military leaders across the region in recent weeks, including some in Syria and Iraq.
The paramilitary Quds Force handles activities abroad for the IRGC, including unconventional warfare and intelligence gathering.
Qaani was in Lebanon last week as well, where he met with the leaders of Gaza’s Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror movements at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, the sources told WSJ.
While not confirmed to be connected, militants in southern Lebanon fired a barrage of rockets at Israel around the same time as his visit. The sources said the details of the rocket attack were finalized in Qaani’s meetings in Beirut, though.
Rockets were also fired at the Jewish state from Gaza and Syria, prompting Israel to respond with retaliatory airstrikes targeting what it said were militants in all three bordering territories. The Israeli military subsequently boosted its security presence in Jerusalem and reinforced its Iron Dome air defense system nationwide, amid intelligence reports of potential Iranian plots to attack Israel.
Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah marked the Iranian-sponsored anti-Israel Quds Day with a speech in which he warned that “Israel should be scared, deterred, and worried.”
