In recent years, Iran has been upgrading the terrorist groups' capabilities to fight the Israeli military and attack Israeli civilians under orders from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, by bringing in anti-tank launchers, handguns and powerful Iran-manufactured explosive devices. MEMRI has monitored this Iranian policy from its inception and has warned about the building up of the strength of the Palestinian resistance and about its implementation over the years, in multiple reports (see below).
Since its establishment in 1979, the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran has set the goal of eliminating Israel, which it calls the "little Satan" and a "cancerous growth," at the focus of its ideology. This goal has been expressed and emphasized openly, alongside Iran's years-long massive and consistent military aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Both Iranian and Palestinian officials have clearly stated that Iran has provided training and guidance, as well as military equipment and rockets, to these Palestinian resistance organizations, and that Iran has had them carry out activity in accordance with its needs. Iran has also provided backing and encouragement for intifada operations – from attrition operations to a large-scale armed popular uprising against Israel from the West Bank and Gaza.
For the past decade, the Iranian regime, on orders from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been openly involved in arming the West Bank and in promoting terrorist operations against Israel by its proxies, the “resistance” factions. Many Iranian and Palestinian officials have praised the fact that slain Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani was personally in contact with the resistance factions and was the architect of the plan to arm Hamas and the PIJ, to provide them with rockets and with knowhow for the manufacture of rockets.[1]
MEMRI Reports On The Ticking Time Bomb In The West Bank
Iran's policy of encouraging terror against Israel from the West Bank has borne fruit, and has been manifest in the last three years in the emergence of unaffiliated terror militias whose members come from different Palestinian factions, such as Hamas and the PIJ (See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11507 - The West Bank – A Ticking Time Bomb – August 14, 2024). With Iran's help, these militias have established an infrastructure for jointly waging armed struggle against Israel while challenging the rule of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.
Such militias include the Lion's Den, based in the Nablus Old City; the Jenin Brigade, operating out of Jenin; the Tubas Brigade in the town of Tubas, and the Tulkarm Brigade, based mainly in that city's refugee camps. Reports indicate that similar militias are also forming in Jericho and elsewhere.
The PA openly accuses Iran of acting to overthrow it by arming Hamas and the PIJ in the West Bank and guiding their activity against the PA itself, with the ultimate goal of staging a military coup. These accusations have intensified recently, amid the numerous weapon shipments brought into the West Bank with Iranian funding, and the armed clashes that have taken place between the PA security apparatuses and operatives of the Iran-backed Hamas and PIJ (See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11734, Palestinian Authority (PA) Launches Operation To Defeat West Bank Terror Militias; Hamas In Response: This Is Political Suicide On Part Of PA, December 18, 2024; Special Dispatch No. 11395 - Palestinian Authority Attacks Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei: His Speech Proves That Iran Is Behind October 7; Iran Is Willing To Sacrifice Palestinians To Promote Its Goals – June 13, 2024; Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1746 - Jordan Increasingly Concerned About Iran Amid Activity Of Iran-Backed Militias On Its Northern Border – February 20, 2024).
The operatives and officials of these militias now openly declare their intention to carry out attacks on Israeli localities similar to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel (See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10932 - Incitement To Jihad And Terrorism Against Israel In The West Bank – November 2, 2023; Special Dispatch No. 10793, Saleh Al-'Arouri, Deputy Head Of Hamas' Political Bureau Killed Yesterday In Beirut, In September 2023 Interview Translated By MEMRI: Developing The Resistance In The West Bank, Including Rocket Capabilities, Is A Supreme Goal; We Must Take Advantage Of The Global Developments To Escalate The Confrontation With Israel, January 3, 2024; Special Dispatch No. 11523 - Hamas And Other Terror Organizations: We Will Resume Blowing Up Buses In Tel Aviv – August 26, 2024; Special Dispatch No. 10965 - Hamas Threatens To Repeat October 7 Attack In Or From West Bank – November 20, 2023). They also frequently thank Iran for extending military aid to their militias, including those in the West Bank (See Special Dispatch No. 10124 - In Tehran Visit On The Eve Of The Gaza-Israel Conflict, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Leader Nakhaleh, Iranian Regime Heads Praise Iran's Support For PIJ; IRGC Qods Force Commander Qaa'ni: 'The Palestinian Fighters Are At The Stage Of Planning To Strike The Final Blows Against The Rotting Body Of The Zionist Regime, When The Time Is Right' – August 8, 2022).
In light of this development, the Israeli military has been carrying out an extensive campaign against these West Bank Palestinian resistance groups armed and funded by Iran.
The following are MEMRI reports from the past decade about Iran's ongoing strategy of providing Palestinian resistance groups with weapons aimed against Israel:
MEMRI Reports On The Iranian Regime's Arming Of West Bank Palestinian Resistance Organizations – On Khamenei's Orders
On July 23, 2014, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced Iran's intention to arm the West Bank to fight Israel, just as it had armed Gaza for the same purpose. His guidelines in this matter have since become a strategy, which he and other Iranian officials have reiterated in public statements ever since. See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1107, Qods Day In Iran: Tehran Calls For Annihilation Of Israel And For Arming The West Bank, July 25, 2014
Khamenei's promise to arm the West Bank, posted on his Facebook page November 25, 2014.
Following this first declaration in July 2014, prominent Iranian regime officials, among them former IRGC Qods Force commander Ahmad Vahidi, stressed that arming the West Bank was a strategic policy that would change the Palestinian arena. Amir Mousavi, former advisor to the Iranian defense minister, noted that Iran had discovered more efficient routes for transferring weapons to the Palestinians, including via Jordan and the Golan Heights, adding that, because of the West Bank's proximity to Tel Aviv and Haifa, short-range rockets would be sufficient. At the same time, the Basij released a communique calling on the Iranian government to urgently pass legislation in the Majlis in support of arming the West Bank Palestinians, in accordance with Khamenei's instructions. See Inquiry & Analysis No. 1108, Iran's New Strategy Of Diversion: Persuading The Sunni Camp To Fight Israel, Not Iran, July 31, 2014.
In the years that followed, the Iranian regime continued to promote the provision of weapons to the West Bank. At a Tehran conference on November 25, 2014, Khamenei once again reiterated his position, stressing that arming the West Bank was an integral part of the Iranian strategy to undermine Israel's security. At the same time, Iranian officials such as then-IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Ja'fari and Hossein Salami, his deputy, who is now IRGC commander, reinforced this position, stating that arming the West Bank would ultimately lead to Israel's collapse and destruction. See Special Dispatch No. 5906, Iranian Regime Escalates Threats To Annihilate Israel, December 17, 2014.
Khamenei's statements on February 13, 2019, marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, included instructions for administrating and achieving the goals of his vision for the next 40 years – "the second phase of the Islamic Revolution." Khamenei said: "Today the challenge is mighty Iran's presence at the borders of the Zionist regime, expelling America's illegitimate influence from the Middle East region, [maintaining] the Islamic Republic's support for the Palestinian fighters in the heart of the occupied territories [i.e. Israel], and defending the waving flag of Hizbullah and of the [Islamic] resistance throughout this region." See
Inquiry & Analysis No. 1441, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Announces The Goals Of 'The Second Phase Of The Islamic Revolution' For The Next 40 Years: 'The Challenge Is Mighty Iran's Presence At The Borders Of The Zionist Regime', February 13, 2019.
At the Qods Day 2021 ceremony in Tehran, on May 7, Iranian regime officials, headed by Khamenei, boasted of Iran's arming of the Palestinian resistance factions with military equipment, primarily rockets, including through activity by the IRGC Qods Force. They called for the destruction of Israel and encouraged the Palestinians to launch an uprising against it in order to achieve this goal. This indeed happened a few days later, when the Palestinian resistance organizations fired rockets on Jerusalem, central Israel, and the coastal plain.
It should be noted that Qods Day, established by the founder of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is a symbol of the destruction of Israel marked annually by the regime on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.
At the ceremony, Khamenei stressed the need for comprehensive Palestinian unity across Gaza, the West Bank, the refugee camps in the countries neighboring Israel, and the Arab population inside Israel, as part of the armed struggle against Israel. Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative in the IRGC's Tharallah headquarters, which is in charge of security in Tehran, stated: "Qods Day means the mobilization of Islam and the establishment of the Qods Force," whose commander, Qassem Soleimani, "had filled the hands of the West Bank and Gaza residents with weapons." See Inquiry and Analysis No. 1577, Destruction Of Israel By The Sword Or By Referendum – Part I: On Qods Day 2021, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Calls On Palestinians To Rise Up Against Israel, May 24, 2021.
In a May 23, 2021 interview with the website of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian international affairs expert Masoud Asadollahi spoke about Iran's strategy for strengthening the Palestinian resistance in Gaza in recent years and clarified that the Iranian regime was now acting to arm the West Bank in order to carry out Khamenei's orders. Asadollahi stressed that the Iranian regime was working resolutely to fulfill Khamenei's directive to arm the West Bank as it had armed Gaza. During the May 2021 conflict between Gaza and Israel, Iranian regime spokesmen praised Hamas and the PIJ for firing rockets at Israel and for their loyalty to the vision of Israel's destruction. Defense Minister Amir Hatami and Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani directly linked Iran to the rocket fire, stressing Iranian military and financial aid to the groups and pointing at the central role of the late Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani in the transfer of rockets and the technical know-how to manufacture them. See Inquiry & Analysis No 1588, Destruction Of Israel By The Sword Or By Referendum – Part II: Senior Iranian Regime Officials Link Iran To The May 2021 Gaza Conflict, Urge Hamas And PIJ To Continue Their Fight Against Israel, July 22, 2021.
IRGC commander Hossein Salami, in an interview with Khamenei's website published August 19, 2022, reiterated Khamenei's instructions to arm the West Bank cities of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm, and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem – just as Iran had helped Gaza arm itself with missiles and weapons – and to continue the armed struggle against civilians in Israel's cities, including from within the West Bank. Noting that the process of arming the West Bank with Iran's help is ongoing, he said that in order to defeat Israel there is a need for wide-scale ground warfare that includes a joint front of Palestine and Lebanon in which the Palestinian young people in the West Bank and Gaza and the Hizbullah fighters will both participate. See Special Dispatch No. 10173, IRGC Commander Salami In Interview For Supreme Leader Khamenei's Website: 'The Palestinians Are Ready Today For Ground Warfare – Israel's Major Weak Point... Missiles Are Excellent For Deterrence... But They Do Not Liberate The Lands; A Ground-Based Force Must Be Deployed, And Must Liberate The Land, Step By Step... Hizbullah And Palestine Will Move On The Ground In A Single Military Formation', August 31, 2022.
In August 2022, PIJ secretary general Ziad Nakhalleh acknowledged that Iran and Khamenei were behind the reinforcement of the armed resistance in the West Bank, saying: "Today the Palestinian resistance has a strong presence in the West Bank, in addition to a strong presence in Gaza, and in the future this will lead to increased pressure on the Zionist regime and to changes in the equation in Palestine. These achievements are thanks to Iran's support." See Special Dispatch No. 10124 - In Tehran Visit On The Eve Of The Gaza-Israel Conflict, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Leader Nakhaleh, Iranian Regime Heads Praise Iran's Support For PIJ; IRGC Qods Force Commander Qaa'ni: 'The Palestinian Fighters Are At The Stage Of Planning To Strike The Final Blows Against The Rotting Body Of The Zionist Regime, When The Time Is Right' – August 8, 2022.
On July 9, 2023, Ziad Al-Nakhalleh said that at a meeting that June with Khamenei the latter had "again stressed [the need] to promote the arming of the West Bank and the resistance activity there." He said that the Palestinians were implementing Khamenei's orders by means of smuggling in and acquiring weapons, and that the cooperation with Iran had also contributed to their focus on independent weapons manufacturing, including rockets and anti-tank weapons. Praising Iran for its technical and military contributions that allowed the PIJ to develop advanced weaponry, thus significantly advancing the Palestinian resistance capabilities, he especially praised the contribution of the late Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani to developing the abilities of the Palestinian armed factions, and noted that the relations with the Qods Force continue to be close in the era of Soleimani's successor, Esmail Qaani. For more on this see Special Dispatch No. 10721, PIJ Secretary-General Al-Nakhaleh In Interviews With Iranian Media: We Manufacture Weapons Thanks To Aid Provided By Iran And Seek To Arm All West Bank Cities; No Jew Anywhere In The World Lives In Greater Danger Than The Jews In Palestine, July 24, 2023.
A few months previously, on April 18, 2023, IRGC commander Hossein Salami said in a speech for Iran's Army Day that "invisible hands" – hinting at the Iranian regime – were providing the Palestinian organizations in the West Bank with weapons to be used against Israel. See Special Dispatch No. 10588, IRGC Commander Salami: 'Invisible Hands Armed The West Bank – And You [Now] See Modern Automatic Rifles And Automatic Weapons In The Hands Of The Palestinians', May 2, 2023.
On January 1, 2024, Qods Force deputy director Mohammad Reza Falahzadeh praised the resistance axis's struggle against Israel and the U.S. on the various fronts. He emphasized that the West Bank had become an "undeclared battle arena" through which the resistance fighters in the other Iranian proxies are supporting Iran in the fight against Israel. See Special Dispatch No. 11065, IRGC Commander Salami: 'We Are Proud To Be Fighting On Several Fronts; We Are Fighting America, Zionism, And All Those Who Are Targeting The Greatness And Honor Of Iran's Islamic Revolution... We Are On The Verge Of Conquering Great Heights', January 8, 2024.
[1] See MEMRI Reports: Special Dispatch No. 9330 - Hamas, Islamic Jihad Officials: Iran Provides Our Missiles, Weapons, Funds, And Food, Our Gunmen 'Were Trained By Our Brothers In The IRGC'; Without Iran's Assistance, We Wouldn't Be Able To Fire Rockets At Tel Aviv; Qassem Soleimani Personally Oversaw Transfer Of Rockets To Gaza – May 12, 2021; Special Dispatch No. 9717 - On Second Anniversary Of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani's Killing, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Continue To Praise Him; Controversy In Gaza Over Billboards Commemorating Him – January 10, 2022).
