Thursday, August 11, 2022

Gantz accuses Iran of funding Islamic Jihad with tens of millions of dollars a year

Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday accused Iran of funding Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year, a week after Israel fought a three-day battle with the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

PIJ launched 1,175 rockets and mortars at Israel between Friday and Sunday. According to the Israel Defense Forces, some 200 rockets of them fell short inside the Gaza Strip. In several cases, failed rocket launches killed Palestinian civilians.

“While the world watched ‘another escalation between Israel and Gaza,’ I stopped to emphasize: The Iranian ayatollahs are involved on this front. Islamic Jihad in Gaza is a violent Iranian proxy,” Gantz said, as he hosted his Cypriot counterpart at the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.

“Their leadership visits Iran and meets Iranian leaders frequently. Islamic Jihad has an open tab in Iran,” he said.

Throughout the round of fighting, the PIJ’s secretary general, Ziad Nakhaleh, was in Iran for meetings with the terror group’s main backers. READ MORE