Hamas's political bureau leader Khaled Mashaal, currently living in Qatar, sent a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday, calling on him to join the "struggle" against Israel in light of Operation Brother's Keeper.
The operation has seen IDF forces crack down on Hamas's terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria in an effort to rescue three teens abducted by Hamas terrorists. The identities of two of the Hamas kidnappers were revealed by the IDF on Thursday.
Mashaal complained to Rouhani about "the continuing collective punishment that the Palestinian nation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffer from," reports Walla!.
The Hamas leader went on, calling on Iran to aid the struggle of the "Palestinian nation" against Israel so as "to end the aggression."
Iran, the key sponsor of the Hamas terrorist group until being replaced in that position by Turkey in 2012, is currently in the processes of negotiating a deal on its nuclear program with world powers.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned against the impending deal, which Israel estimates would allow Iran to retain 2,000 to 4,000 centrifuges, leaving it a nuclear threshold state with breakout capability to produce a nuclear bomb in a matter of weeks.
Hamas and Iran experienced something of a falling out over the Syrian war, with Iran siding with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hamas initially siding with the rebel forces.
Mashaal has been leading rapprochement between the two sides, meeting Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian last month and expressing a conciliatory stance vis-a-vis Assad.
On Monday, Mashaal said "blessed be the kidnappers, since it is a Palestinian obligation to release prisoners and make the occupation pay the price of the Palestinian suffering."