Hizbullah Brigades Leader Promises Hamas: We'll Spare No Effort, Blood, Or Money To Assist Gaza

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. 

On May 17, 2024, the websites of the Iran-backed Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades and the Hamas movement reported that the secretary general of the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, Abu Hussein Al-Hamidawi had spoken by phone to Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, and the two had discussed "the political developments and the developments on the ground" in the war in Gaza.

According to the Hizbullah Brigades website, Al-Hamidawi told Haniyeh that he follows, "meticulously and on a daily basis, the heroic battles being waged by our sons, our brothers, and our people in Gaza… which are an example that exposes [the disgrace of] those who excuse their lack of action on the pretext of a lack of resources and capabilities… which will enable the Islamic nation to rid itself of all the regimes that control its resources and occupy its lands." Al-Hamidawi added that, "The Iraqi people and its Islamic resistance are grateful, aching, and feeling ashamed because in the past they were unable to do more than they did, which was less than what should have been done… Al-Aqsa Flood has restored Iraq to the heart of the Islamic-Arab struggle against the Zionists… which will undoubtedly contribute to hastening the end of the Zionist Nazi occupation of our land from the river to the sea."

Al-Hamidawi asserted that "the Islamic resistance will spare no effort, blood, or money to assist our people in Gaza." Haniyeh expressed appreciation for the assistance that the Islamic Resistance factions in Iraq are providing to the Palestinian people by means of their attacks on "the Zionist entity" and added that the martyrs that the Iraqi people and its "noble" resistance have sacrificed for Palestine are proof of the unity of the blood and the support for the Palestinian issue. Haniyeh thanked the families of the martyrs in Iraq which, he said, have made sacrifices just as the families of the martyrs in Gaza have made sacrifices.[1] Following the publication of the report, the official Hizbullah Brigades Telegram channel shared a poster which depicted two of the group's operatives preparing weapons, and a quote from remarks by Al-Hamidawi, as reported on the websites.[2]

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel following the Hamas attack on communities and military bases in Israel on October 7, 2023, the Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, who band together under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have claimed that they carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks on targets on Israeli territory, so as "to assist our people in Gaza and in response to the acts of slaughter perpetrated by the oppressive entity [i.e. Israel] against the Palestinian civilians."[3]

In addition to these attacks, the militias are working to arm the Palestinian factions in the Palestinian territories, among other ways by smuggling weapons via Jordan. On April 1, Abu Ali Al-Askari, the military spokesman for the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, announced that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq "had made the preparations to equip the mujahideen brothers of the Islamic resistance in Jordan with whatever is needed for 12,000 fighters, including light and medium weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, tactical missiles, millions of pieces of ammunition, and tons of explosives."

Al-Askari said that this was done "so that we can act together to defend our Palestinian brothers and to take revenge for the attack by the sons of the monkeys and the pigs on the honor of the Muslims."[4] Sources within the militias even described Jordan as the new "frontline of the resistance" that should be activated.

According to reports from the Jordanian security apparatuses, these declarations are not merely empty words, and several attempts by the militias, on Iran's orders, to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian factions via Jordanian territory, as well as attempts by militia operatives to infiltrate Jordanian territory, have been foiled.[5]

Furthermore, on May 15, a Jordanian security source told Petra, the official Jordanian news agency, that during recent months the Jordanian security apparatuses have thwarted "numerous attempts" to smuggle weapons, including including Claymore mines, explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and 107-millimeter Katyusha rockets. The source further stated that at the end of March a smuggling attempt by "the militias supported by one of the countries," i.e. Iran, to "a [terrorist] cell in Jordan" was foiled and the cell members were arrested.[6]