“The military operation carried out by Iran against the Zionist entity is a natural right and a due response to the crime of targeting the consulate in Damascus,” the Palestinian group says in a post on Telegram.
Hamas said it affirmed “the natural right” of countries and peoples in the region to defend themselves “in the face of Zionist aggressions”, referring to Israel.
“We call on our Arab and Islamic nation, the free people of the world and the resistance forces in the region to continue their support for the flood of Al-Aqsa,” the group added, referring to their October 7 attack on Israel.
Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, in a retaliatory assault that caused minor damage at an Israeli military facility.
The late Saturday night attack set off air raid sirens in cities across Israel, including Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem, and explosions were heard as air defences intercepted the projectiles.
The Israeli military said the Iranian salvo consisted of more than 300 “killer drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles”, but that 99 percent were intercepted with help from forces from France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The launches came from Iran, as well as from Iraq and Yemen, it said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack, saying it launched the drones and missiles under Operation True Promise as part of the punishment for “the Zionist entity’s crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria” on April 1.
The raid in Damascus killed 12 people, including two senior generals in the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.
