Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that the IDF’s operations in the Gaza Strip would not go unanswered, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in Hebrew on Thursday.
“This bombing will not make up for the crushing defeat that the Zionist entity suffered (October 7). This bombing will shorten its life, while the deprivation and atrocities will not remain unanswered,” wrote Khamenei.
At the beginning of November, Khamenei published another tweet in Hebrew reading “The Zionist entity is lying to you, and it is also lying when it expressed concern about its prisoners with the Palestinians. Rather it also destroys them with the shelling it does. The occupying entity is helpless and confused now, and without American support will be silenced within days.”
Iranian threats to expand the conflict
In the weeks since the October 7 massacre launched by Hamas and the IDF’s response in Gaza, Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to expand the conflict to additional fronts through their proxies. Hezbollah has launched rockets and anti-tank missiles from Lebanon toward Israel since the day after the war began and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have launched missiles and drones toward Eilat several times. Both groups have said they are not fully involved in the war despite the attacks, but have threatened to become more fully involved if the war continues.
In mid-October, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned that the country’s proxies around the Middle East could launch preemptive strikes on Israel “in the coming hours.”
“In the coming hours, any preemptive action against the Zionist regime is conceivable,” said Amirabdollahian at the time. “The leaders of the resistance will not allow the Zionist regime to do whatever it wants in Gaza and then go to other fronts of the resistance.”
The foreign minister claimed as well that Iran “does not give orders” to the Iran-backed militias and terrorist groups throughout the region which make up what they refer to as “the Axis of Resistance.”
Amirabdollahian added that “if the war crimes of the Zionist regime are not stopped, new fronts will be opened and this issue will be inevitable.”
The Iranian official added as well that “if we do not defend Gaza today, tomorrow we will have to deal with the phosphorus bombs of the regime in our own hospitals. An opportunity has been obtained for us to stop the Zionists inside their own home.”
The foreign minister has made similar comments regularly in the weeks since.
Two weeks ago, Amirabdollahian reportedly told Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani “due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza’s civilian residents, that expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable.”
On Thursday, Amirabdollahian met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar, where Haniyeh has been living in recent years. Earlier in the day, the foreign minister met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Lebanese officials, stating after the meetings that “the continuation of the ceasefire can prevent further expansion of the scope of the war. In the meeting with the leaders of the resistance, I found out that if Israel’s war crimes and genocide continue, a tougher and more complicated scenario of the resistance will be implemented.”
Source » jpost