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A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced support for a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel Saturday, calling it a “proud operation”. bulletin news

“We support the proud Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” Yahya Rahim Safavi said using the codename for the operation announced by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

“We support this operation, and we are sure that the resistance front also supports this issue,” added Safavi, a Revolutionary Guards general, in comments reported by the ISNA news agency.

Militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, penetrated Israel at dawn on Saturday under cover of a massive rocket barrage.

At least 70 people have been killed in Israel during the violence, according to the latest toll from the Magen David Adom emergency medical service.

Safavi pledged support for the Palestinian militants “until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani too hailed the Palestinian assault.

“Today’s operation marked a new page in the field of resistance and armed operations against the occupiers,” he said.

“The resistance has so far achieved brilliant victories during this operation, and this is a bright spot in the history of the Palestinian people’s struggle against the Zionists.”

At a parliament session on Saturday, Iranian lawmakers chanted “Down with Israel”, “Down with America”, and “Welcome Palestine”, footage published by the Tasnim news agency showed.

Dozens gathered in Tehran’s Palestine Square carrying the Palestinian flag and pictures of slain general Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone attack in 2020 after overseeing the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations for more than a decade.

Iran, which hosted talks with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in June, has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy ever since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Iran considers Israel its arch enemy and the two governments have engaged in a shadow war for years, with Iran accusing Israel of a series of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme.

The United States and Israel have previously accused Iran of using drones and missiles to attack US forces and Israel-linked ships in the Gulf.

rkh/kir