Shortly after airstrikes on Iran began on February 28, several Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), issued strong condemnations of Israel and the US and voiced support for the Iranian regime. They also called on Arabs and Muslims to stand united against Israel and the US.
Palestinian support for the Iranian regime did not come as a surprise. For decades, the Iranian regime had provided significant financial and military support to both Hamas and PIJ. This backing is a cornerstone of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" strategy, which aims to project regional influence to counter Israeli and US interests in the Middle East.
In the past, the Palestinians supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In 2003, the Palestinians took to the streets to voice support for Saddam Hussein against the US invasion. Some of them chanted, "Dear Saddam, bomb Tel Aviv." Many Palestinians have also sided with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in previous rounds of fighting with Israel.
Consequently, the Palestinians lost the backing of several Arab countries, including those that used to provide them with financial aid, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Since then, according to various reports, Iran has been providing up to $100 million annually to Palestinian terror groups, with the majority going to Hamas. Documents captured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2024 revealed that Iran transferred about $154 million to Hamas's military wing between 2014 and 2020 alone. The Iranian regime, in addition, has provided technical expertise for Hamas to manufacture its own missiles locally in Gaza. Members of Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, have also received specialized training in Iran on operating UAVs and sabotaging military targets.
Without Iran's backing, Hamas would not have been able to carry out its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel and murder, torture, mutilate, rape and kidnap hundreds of Israelis and foreign nationals.
PIJ is also heavily dependent on Iran, receiving approximately $70 million annually, alongside weapons, technical training, and logistical support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
By aligning themselves with the Iranian regime, the Palestinian terror groups have brought death and destruction on their people in the Gaza Strip, especially in the aftermath of the 2023 invasion of Israel. These groups, however, do not care about the well-being and safety of their people and are prepared to sacrifice thousands of Palestinians as part of the Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.
Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, for his part, never hid his thoughts about Israel and the US. Just last year he called Israel a "cancerous tumor" and branded the US a partner in its crimes. Like his Palestinian proxies, Khamenei was always prepared to sacrifice as many Palestinians as possible as part of the Jihad against Israel and the US. A year earlier, Khamenei told then Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh:
"The divine promise to eliminate the Zionist entity [Israel] will be fulfilled and we will see the day when Palestine will rise from the river to the sea."
Within hours of the start of the current Israeli-US offensive against Iran, Hamas said in a statement:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemns in the strongest terms the American-Zionist aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we affirm that this American-Zionist aggression constitutes a direct targeting of the entire region, and an assault on its security, stability, and sovereignty.
"While we affirm our solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran in confronting the aggression, we call upon the Arab and Islamic nation to unite and stand in solidarity to thwart this aggression and its objectives..."
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim, who leads a comfortable life in Qatar, claimed that the attack on Iran was "driven solely by alignment with the strategic objectives and expansionist agenda of the Zionist entity, led by [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu."
According to PIJ:
"The blatant American-Israeli aggression launched by the administration of President Donald Trump and the government of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu against the Islamic Republic of Iran is a dangerous escalation threatening our region and the peoples of our Arab and Islamic nation. It is a continuation of the aggressive approach aimed at redrawing the region's maps in favor of the Zionist entity, liquidating the Palestinian cause, and breaking the will of free peoples. The courageous Iranian people have the right to defend themselves. The peoples of our Arab and Islamic nation and the sons of our Palestinian people are called upon to close ranks and unify their positions to confront this aggressive scheme that targets everyone."
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a faction of the PLO (which is headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas), called on "liberation forces and freedom-loving people worldwide to declare solidarity with Iran and escalate popular protests in various arenas."
A Palestinian group called "the Fatah Movement of the Intifada" stated:
"We declare our full solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, represented by its wise leadership, army, resistance, and brotherly people. The Islamic Republic has the right to respond and defend itself. The American administration is the greatest enemy of the progress of the peoples of our region and our nation."
These Palestinian statements should be viewed as a direct threat not only against Israel, but also against the US.
Unfortunately, the Palestinians have not learned from the self-defeating decisions they made in the past, when they chose to align themselves with the enemies of Israel and the US.
The Palestinian terror groups that continue to control the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas, seem determined to pursue their Jihad against Israel, notwithstanding the death and destruction they inflict on the Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" will never be able to bring security and stability to the Middle East so long as these groups continue to maintain a civilian and military presence in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have again shown that they do not hesitate to side with the enemies of Israel and the US.
Removing Iran's mullahs from power is not enough. The Israeli-US military operation should be expanded to include the Iranian regime's proxies.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
