Iran’s Raisi Says Israeli Actions ‘May Force Everyone’ to Act

A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
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Iran’s Raisi Says Israeli Actions ‘May Force Everyone’ to Act

A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday said Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza "may force everyone" to act in the latest warning issued by Tehran since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Israel has been pounding the tiny Palestinian territory since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7 and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Since then, more than 8,000 people have been killed, half of them children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, an impoverished strip of land which is home to 2.4 million people.

"The crimes of the Zionist regime have crossed the red lines, and this may force everyone to take action," Raisi said on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

"Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel," he said.

"The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield," he said, using a term often used by Iranian officials to refer to Iran and its allies like Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthi militias and other Shiite forces in Iraq and Syria.

Although it was not immediately clear what he was referring to, there have been a string of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon border since the Gaza conflict began.

Iran, which financially and militarily backs Hamas, hailed the October 7 attacks as a "success".

But it has insisted it was not involved in the onslaught, during which 230 people were also taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

"Iran considers it its duty to support the resistance groups, but ... the resistance groups are independent in their opinion, decision, and action," the Iranian president said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, according to excerpts released by state news agency IRNA.

"The United States knows very well our current capabilities and knows that they are impossible to overcome," he said.



Families of Israeli Detainees Accuse Netanyahu of Misleading Trump to Evade Hostage Deal

US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP)
US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP)
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Families of Israeli Detainees Accuse Netanyahu of Misleading Trump to Evade Hostage Deal

US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP)
US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP)

Families of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip accused on Monday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of presenting to US President-elect Donald Trump misleading information about the fate of the prisoners to evade a hostage deal under US pressure.

This came after reports issued last week said Trump did not know that half of the Israeli detainees held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were alive.

Israel's Channel 13 said Monday that while the US and Israel are focused on negotiations to end the war in Lebanon, the file of Israeli prisoners in Gaza remains stalled amid declining efforts to conclude a deal.

“This situation angers the families and drives them crazy; they see that the government, which has turned its back on the prisoners' file for 416 days, is working with all its might to prevent a deal with Hamas despite knowing fully well that this means threatening the lives of the prisoners,” the channel said.

Sources close to Trump confirmed to the channel his interest in the prisoners' case.

However, they added, Tel Aviv is telling the upcoming administration that most of the prisoners were killed in order to evade concluding a hostage deal with Hamas, under US pressure, after the inauguration of the new administration on January 20.

The channel said that at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, some compared Trump to President Ronald Reagan, who ended the Iran hostage crisis after taking power in 1981.

It added that during his election campaign, Trump repeatedly said that Hamas' attacks on Israel would “never have happened” if he were president. He had also promised to release the hostages in Gaza.

An official close to President Isaac Herzog had earlier revealed that Trump did not know about the fate of the Israeli captives.

The official said that when Herzog called to congratulate Trump on his election, he heard the President-elect say that the abductees had been killed while in Hamas captivity.

To Trump’s surprise, Herzog replied that more than half were still alive.

Therefore, the Israelis concluded that Netanyahu misled Trump by telling him that most of the captives were dead.

“I can confirm, based on sources I speak with, that Israeli government officials are informing Trump and his team that the majority of the hostages were killed,” said the father of a captured soldier, Rubi Chen.

He said the government is using this approach to reduce any potential pressure from the Trump administration on Israel to reach a hostage deal.

Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and killed in captivity, wrote on X, “Who is spreading these lies? Who convinces Trump that the hostages are dead? Instead of returning everyone quickly, dead or alive, you waited until the hostages were killed in captivity, and now you lie and say that most of them are dead to justify abandoning them again.”

At a press conference marking one year since the hostage deal that brought 81 Israeli citizens and 24 foreign nationals home, released hostage Raz Ben Ami, said, “if they could only manage to understand what it is to be in subhuman conditions in the tunnels, surrounded by terrorists for 54 days – there is no way they would let the hostages stay there for 415 days.

Earlier, Israeli Democratic Party leader Yair Golan warned that Netanyahu's government is trying to reach a settlement in the north to foil a deal with Hamas in Gaza.