While Israel has faced terrorism throughout much of its existence, the scale of this attack is unprecedented. It is comparable in significance to the surprise attack Israel faced during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
There are three crucial points to consider. First, Hamas – the Islamic Resistance Movement or Harakat al Muqawama al Islamiyah, is not an independent agent but, along with other terror proxies, a part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance.” It is Iran’s tool for spreading its hegemony across the Middle East. As per its charter, Hamas seeks to “liberate” the Holy Land and take control of Jerusalem while denying Jews the right to exist.
Not surprisingly, the Hamas Charter comports with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s eschatologically driven postulate that the liberation of Jerusalem will precede the return of the Mahdi, the disappeared Shia 12th Imam.
Iran is providing the terror group with training, weapons, and money. Since its emergence in the 1980s, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and Hezbollah trained Hamas operatives how to build tunnels, make and use suicide bombs, roadside bombs, rockets, and drones. Iran has also been sending the group up to $50 million annually.