Israel on Monday accused Tehran and its Palestinian terrorist proxy Hamas of smuggling weapons into Jordan and the West Bank to destabilize those areas as the world braces for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday that a “serious and dangerous situation is unfolding in Iran.”
Katz alleged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Units are collaborating with Hamas operatives in Lebanon to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan “with the aim of destabilizing the regime.”
From there, Katz said, the weapons are smuggled into the West Bank, flooding areas like Judea and Samaria where there are refugee camps, “with dangerous weapons and large sums of money – aiming to create a pro-Iranian Islamic terror front.”
Katz said Iran’s effective control of these refugee camps in the West Bank leaves the Palestinian Authority “powerless to act.”
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“We must take terror hubs like the Jenin refugee camp and carry out a thorough operational campaign to dismantle the terror infrastructure in the camp,” Katz said, calling such a plan “a shared interest of Israel, many regional states, and the entire free world – to halt the spread of Iran’s axis of evil.”
Katz’s statement comes as Israel is bracing for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.
Iranian mourners are seen shouting anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans while participating in a funeral ceremony for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard Abu Shaaban, in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 1, (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Israel was immediately blamed for the assassination after pledging to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state, which killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage.
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Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon also late last month confirmed the death of Faud Shukr, its “No. 2” commander who was involved in the 1983 Beirut bombings of a Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. military personnel.
A worker walks by debris as a backhoe removes rubble from a building that was damaged by an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday evening in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP/Hussein Malla)
This comes as mediators United States, Qatar, and Egypt have been pushing for ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas to end the 10-month war.
Mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel would withdraw from Gaza. Talks have been expected to resume Thursday.
On Monday, France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement endorsing the plan, while calling for the return of scores of hostages held by Hamas and the “unfettered” delivery of humanitarian aid.
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The statement was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate regional tensions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
