Terrorists marching (illustration)
Terrorists marching (illustration)Flash 90

Iranian military leaders have openly boasted that they have begun to send weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in the region, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday.

The report quoted a top Iranian military commander who confirmed that weapon shipments to Judea and Samaria have already begun and that more will be sent to other “Palestinian resistance groups.”

“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij force, told the state-run Fars news agency on Wednesday.

The announcement was made after weeks of inflammatory statements from Iranian leaders threatening war on Israel and promising to rearm groups such as Hamas so that they can continue their war on the Jewish state.

The military leader also confirmed what has long been suspected by Israeli intelligence agencies: That Iran is responsible for training and arming Hamas with highly advanced rockets that were used to penetrate deep into Israeli territory during the most recent conflict.

Much of the arms Hamas deployed “were the products of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Fars reported Naqdi as having boasted.

He further said that Iran is arming terrorists in Judea and Samaria as opposed to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip because attacks on Israel from this area will ensure “the annihilation of the Zionist regime.”

“The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back,” Naqdi declared, according to the Free Beacon.

The comments are in addition to ones made by other Iranian officials who recently admitted that Tehran provided Hamas and Islamic Jihad with the technology necessary to make rockets.

The head of Islamic Jihad recently claimed that his group has “many more surprises up its sleeve” for Israel, including Iranian-made “Zelzal” missiles, an unguided missile that can carry a payload of up to 600 kg (1,323 pounds) of explosives for a distance of up to 200 kilometers.

An Iranian general this week vowed to launch a surprise attack on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli drone that was reportedly shot down near an Iranian nuclear site.

Anger at the incident has also prompted Tehran to step up its military support for Palestinian Arab terrorists, according to the Free Beacon.

“We will accelerate arming the West Bank and we think that we are entitled to give any response (to the recent aggression) which we deem appropriate,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Aerospace Force, was quoted as saying on Monday.

Iran also is considering military force, according to Hajizadeh.