Before the Resistance groups in the Gaza Strip became more organized, the local people and residents in the West Bank had to confront the Zionist enemy using only stones and basic resources during the first intifada.
During that time, the modern Israeli military could easily enter Palestinian areas with minimal resistance and pressure on the native population to either leave their homes or submit to the will of Tel Aviv.
However, following the second intifada, there was a shift in the battlefield dynamics and an increase in the vulnerability of the regime in occupied Palestine.
The former commander of the Quds Force, in collaboration with Lebanese Hezbollah, had the opportunity in the late 1990s to train exiled forces of the Hamas movement in Lebanon in weapon manufacturing and combat tactics against the Israeli enemy.
Now, over two decades since Tehran began its military support to the Resistance in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian groups have gained the capability to defend themselves using various types of missiles, intelligence-driven drones, and anti-armor weapons, effectively countering the Israeli war machine in Gaza.
Martyr Soleimani played a prominent role in strengthening the deterrence power of the Gaza Strip
After the Israeli occupying forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip, control of the Palestinian territory was handed over to the Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas. Tehran began providing material and spiritual aid to the Palestinian groups after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, but its significant involvement can be traced back to the Oslo Accords, which marked the effectiveness of the new generation of resistance and the legitimacy of armed struggle against the Israeli enemy.
The development of relations between Iran and the Hamas movement began with the presence of high-ranking leaders of the Palestinian group during the Tehran Conference (1990-1991). Just one year after the formation of this strategic relationship, the then prime minister of the Zionist regime, Yitzhak Rabin, exiled nearly 420 key figures of Hamas to Lebanon, due to the prominent role of this Palestinian group during the intifada.
At that time, the Quds Force of the IRGC and Lebanese combatants played an important role in training Hamas forces in weapon-making, combat tactics, creating secret tunnels, and urban warfare.
Some personalities affiliated with the Resistance Axis and Israeli officers believe that Martyr Soleimani traveled to the Gaza Strip many times in secret and individually played a role in strengthening Gaza against possible attacks by the Israeli military.
Rocket power of Gaza Resistance lasting legacy of Martyr Soleimani
Due to the complete siege of the Palestinian territories by the military spying apparatus of the Zionist regime, it was not possible to directly purchase or create an assembly line of weapons inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
On this basis, Martyr Soleimani followed the two strategies of creating a secret network of arms transferring and producing all kinds of defensive weapons with minimum facilities in his agenda.
The Resistance arms transfer network followed the transfer of arms to the Palestinian forces from three routes namely Sudan, Egypt, and Libya.
In one of these cases, the Egyptian security service announced the transfer of 138 Grad rockets from Libya to the Gaza Strip.
According to the Washington Institute, Quds Force and IRGC forces sometimes left rocket-making equipment near the waters bordering Gaza for Palestinian forces to pick up these packages near the shore.
For example, some military commanders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were trained in Lebanon and Iran to produce short-range Al-Qassam rockets from simple and civilian materials.
Today, the Ezzeddin al-Qassam and Saraya Al-Quds battalions are equipped with weapons such as Shahab and Al-Qasef drones or Qassam, Fajr, Badr, Qassem, Grad, and Baraq class missiles that can attack the defense system. Challenge the Iron Dome and remove it from the distance.
The ranges of Resistance missiles are estimated between 3 to 250 km, which means that they can target different parts of occupied Palestine.
According to published statistics, it is estimated that between 4 and 5 thousand Palestinian rockets have been fired towards the occupied territories since October 7th.
The most important achievement and legacy of Martyr Soleimani in the path of empowering Palestinian groups is the establishment of a network of equipping the West Bank and Gaza Strip Resistance in various ways.
While Tel Aviv and some of Iran’s regional rivals tried to inflict a serious blow on Tehran’s strategic relations with the Palestinian Resistance through religious sedition or civil war in Syria, Martyr Soleimani never provided military-financial aid to the Palestinian Resistance. It did not stop the forces of the Hamas movement.
For Haj Qassem, the Palestinian issue was never associated with the mere view of “national interests”, but he followed the support of the Resistance groups as a “religious duty”. Now, the result of Lt. Gen. Soleimani’s foresight can be clearly seen during the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation.
The successful Al-Aqsa Storm Operation resulted from Martyr Soleimani’s efforts
Now, the Resistance forces can penetrate 24 kilometers deep into the occupied territories, inflicting irreparable blows on the regime’s military-security structure, and impose a long and attrition war on the Israeli enemy.
According to the estimates made by the economic institutions of the regime, the cost of Israel’s war and the resistance of the Gaza Strip has crossed the border of 50 billion dollars. Also, following the implementation of the unification of the fields policy, the proper performance of the Yemeni National Army in the urbanization of Eilat and Lebanon’s Hezbollah on the northern front has disrupted the economic life in the occupied territories.
Now it is possible to consider the successful Al-Aqsa Storm Operation and the excellent performance of the Resistance Axis on different fronts as one of the results of Martyr Soleimani’s strategy towards the Palestinian issue.
From the Tehran conference in 1990-1991 until the 22-day war in Gaza, Soleimani always sought to provide financial aid and weapons to Palestinian groups and create a joint operations room between them to provide the necessary ground to defeat the Zionist enemy.
These aids caused the Palestinian Resistance groups to be gradually recognized as influential players in the development of the Levant region.
This great commander firmly believed in this path to the extent that in a letter to the financial officer of the Quds Force, he requested that his wages be allocated to the Palestinian issue until the final victory of the Palestinian brothers against Israel.
Martyr Soleimani’s sincere and non-stop assistance to Palestinian groups has made them gradually become self-sufficient in the production of defense products and defend their motherland and the first Qibla of Muslims.
Years of efforts to defend the Quds cause made the Leader of the Islamic Revolution speak about his role in equipping the Palestinian Resistance and the martyrdom of the Palestinian leaders, hours after the martyrdom of this Iranian commander.
Reported by Mehr News Agency
