By World Israel News Staff
About 500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters received special combat training from the elite Quds Force unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with intelligence on the attack.
The terrorists raided the border by taking out Israeli observation posts with drone strikes, while some flew into Israel by paraglider and others came on motorcycles commonly used by Iranian paramilitary groups, but not hitherto used by Hamas, the WSJ reported.
Earlier this month, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran was directly involved in planning the Oct. 7 attack and had even given the go-ahead for the attack five days earlier. This has been widely denied by U.S., Israeli, and Hamas officials, who, while admitting that Iran has long supported Hamas, insist that there is no evidence that Tehran was directly involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
“Before the war, Iran directly assisted Hamas with money, training and weapons and technological know-how,” IDF’s Daniel Hagari said yesterday. “Even now, Iran is helping Hamas with intelligence.”
