The Iranian general killed in the Israeli airstrike that triggered Iran’s retaliatory weekend attack was the Muslim country’s point-man on Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel, a report said Sunday.
The Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces, an organization with close links to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi after his death for his “strategic role in forming and strengthening the resistance front as well as in planning and executing the Al-Aqsa Storm,” a k a the October massacre, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The group’s description of the slain officer April 3, two days after his death, marked the “clearest admission of Iran’s involvement in the atrocities which saw 1,200 mostly civilians murdered and over 250 taken hostage, since terror group Hamas invaded Israel on October 7,” said dissident news organization Iran International.
“This is essentially an official admission by a senior Iranian regime figure that Iran did indeed have a hand in the planning and execution of the October 7 attack,” the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute added.
Khamenei had denied Oct. 10 that Iran was involved in the October slaughter, although a Wall Street Journal report the next day said Tehran clearly had inside knowledge about the attacks, citing key sources within Iran and Hamas.
Zahedi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader, was among seven Iranian regime members killed in the April 1 Israeli airstrike that hit the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
The airstrike led Iran to launch some 300 missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday night.
The “vast majority” of the strikes were deflected by Israel, with the help of the US and other allies, officials said.
Iran — which hosted celebratory street rallies with banners supporting Hamas’ invasion on the same day of Oct. 7 massacre — was the site of similar scenes Sunday after Iran’s unsuccessful retaliatory barrage.
