1Berita – The Palestinian militant group Hamas has denied Iran’s claim that the October 7 attack on Israel was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani four years ago.

In a statement on Wednesday (27/12), Hamas rejected the validity of the statement made by the spokesperson of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Ramadan Sharif, regarding the Al-Aqsa operation and its motives.

“All acts of Palestinian resistance occur in response to the ongoing occupation and aggression against our people and our sanctities,” added the militia’s statement.

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel’s border areas on October 7, including the infiltration of a group of militants into southern Israel, kidnapping hundreds of residents, including foreigners.

The October 7 Hamas attack sparked Israel’s brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of more than 21,100 civilians to date.

Iran had previously denied direct involvement in Hamas’s attack on Israel, pledging not to direct Hamas to launch attacks, though they did not deny providing financial and logistical support to various militias in the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

However, on Wednesday, IRGC spokesperson Ramadan Sharif claimed that Hamas’s attack on Israel was a response to the killing of General Soleimani in 2020.

Quoted by CNN, Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq.

IRGC’s claim comes after Iran’s news agency, IRNA, reported that one of the country’s commanders, Seyyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria earlier this week.

In his statement, Sharif reiterated Iran’s threat of retaliation against Israel for Mousavi’s death.

Iran will respond appropriately to “Israel’s regime for the killing of a senior military advisor in Syria” and will seek revenge for “terrorist attacks at different times and places,” he said, according to IRNA.

Meanwhile, Hamas is part of the Resistance Front, an “alliance” of several Middle Eastern militias allied and affiliated with Iran.

In addition to Hamas, militias associated with Iran in the Resistance Front include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Palestine, and the Houthi in Yemen.