Iran says Tehran-backed militant groups won’t stop attacking Israel until it ceases to exist

Dubai: A senior Iranian military commander said on Tuesday that Tehran-backed militant groups will not stop targeting Israel until the country ceases to exist, Al Arabiya reported.

Ali Fadavi, the second-in-command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), likened Israel to a “cancerous tumor”, saying: “The resistance forces’ shocks against (Israel) will continue until this cancerous tumor disappears from the world map.”

Iran commonly uses terms like “resistance forces”, “resistance groups”, “resistance front”, and “resistance axis” to refer to a network of regional militant groups that it supports. 

This network includes organizations like the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as various militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthi militia in Yemen, Al Arabiya reported.

Fadavi also warned that more attacks against Israel could occur if the Israeli attacks on Gaza persist.

“If the crimes continue in Gaza, the Muslim people of other countries may join the conflict against the Zionists and another shock may be on the way,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying, Al Arabiya reported.

Fadavi said that Israel has not fully recovered from what he described as a “huge defeat” suffered at the hands of Hamas during a surprise attack on October 7. 

On that day, Hamas fighters breached Gaza’s heavily fortified border with Israel and killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Israel has responded with relentless air and artillery strikes on Gaza that have killed more than 2,800 people, mostly civilians.

Tehran, a key source of financial and military support for Hamas, has praised the October 7 Hamas attack while denying any involvement in its planning or execution.

Fadavi contended that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza because it “failed to harm the resistance front”, Al Arabiya reported.