Intelligence Minister: "Israel is not involved in Iranian internal matters"

Speaking before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said Iran is directly involved in upgrading Hamas’s capabilities

Intelligence Minister: "Israel is not involved in Iranian internal matters"

Photo Credit: Yitzhak Harari/Knesset spokesman's office

Iran is currently working on upgrading Hamas’s capabilities, Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

"In recent days, while we face the known threat from Gaza, there is a direct Iranian intervention. Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are involved in operative preparations to upgrade the threat to Israel from the direction of Gaza," he stated.

Katz said that Iran increased its involvement after Hamas was forced to leave Qatar due to pressure from Saudi Arabia.

"In a short time we will see ourselves fighting a much more challenging threat on the operative and military levels if we don’t change direction,” he warned.

Regarding the ongoing protests in Iran, Katz said that Israel is not involved in Iranian internal matters. However, he added, "We want to see the repressive regime removed and replaced with a democracy. We don’t intervene, but we wish luck to the Iranian people in pursuit of freedom and democracy.”

Katz said that he sees opportunities in shared interests between Israel, Saudi Arabia, some Sunni states and the US. He also brought up his proposal to allow a seaport to be built on an island off the coast of Gaza.

"When we talk about Gaza, we need to separate civilian matters from security as much as possible, and remove Israeli responsibility for civilians in Gaza as much as possible, giving them an opening to the world with security supervision,” Katz stated.

 

[Source: The Jerusalem Post]

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