In a ceremony in Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Wednesday, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said that the Israeli regime has escalated its terrorism campaign because “they have realized the speed of their destruction and by doing such things they want to save themselves from the quagmire they are caught in, but they definitely cannot save themselves from annihilation.”
The comments came in reaction to the Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, who was on an official visit to the Iranian capital Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Massoud Pezeshkian.
General Mousavi said replacing the assassinated Hamas leader with Yahya Sinwar, the resistance movement’s leader in Gaza, “indicates the strong determination of the brave and honorable movement for resistance and struggle.”
Iran has asserted it will give a more serious response than its previous retaliatory operation mid-April against Israel. Speculations have been rife since last week on the timing of Iran’s response to Israel.