A top commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel came as a surprise to them, its Hezbollah allies and even the Palestinian group's political leaders.
Iran, slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and senior Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh "were unaware of the October 7 attack,” said Esmail Qaani, head of the foreign operations wing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Quds Force.
Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating the October 7 attacks, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Tehran funded, trained and planned the assault as the culmination of its longstanding support for Hamas.
Successor to Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, Qaani has mostly maintained a low profile and survived serial Israeli assassinations of IRGC commanders during a surprise military campaign in June.
According to Qaani, Haniyeh was preparing for a trip to Iraq when he was surprised to learn of the assault on Israel by Hamas. Haniyeh, a senior Palestinian politician and Hamas’s political leader, served as chairman of the group from 2017 until his assassination by Israel in Tehran in July 2024.
Qaani said he traveled to Lebanon on the afternoon of October 7 and met Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to discuss next steps.
“During the meeting, Nasrallah decided to launch attacks on Israel on October 8,” he said, noting that a large number of Lebanese civilians were holidaying away from homes in southern Lebanon at the time.
On October 8, Hezbollah fired rockets and artillery at multiple Israeli military sites in northern Israel, including around the disputed Shebaa Farms in solidarity with Hamas. Israel responded with heavy artillery fire.
The Jewish State carried out multiple strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including pager explosions in September 2024 that killed more than 30 Hezbollah commanders.
Later that month, an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including Nasrallah. A subsequent air campaign and ground incursion killed over 3,000 people.
Hezbollah disarmament
Qaani added that if Israel could disarm or destroy Hezbollah militarily, it would have continued fighting without pause, but instead Israel requested a ceasefire to regroup.
“While some Israeli officials prematurely claimed Hezbollah’s destruction, battlefield realities showed otherwise,” he said.
Lebanon’s government has unveiled plans to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025, aiming to make the Lebanese Armed Forces the country’s sole armed force even as Israel maintains an armed presence in parts of the country's south.
Hezbollah, with backing from Iran, has resisted handing over its weapons.
