Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ziad al-Nakhalah telephoned on Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and offered their condolences over the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was killed in an American strike last Friday in Iraq.
According to a Hamas statement, Haniyeh praised Soleimani for his role in supporting the resistance and backing the Palestinian people’s rights.
Zarif thanked the Hamas chief for the call and stated that Iran would continue to back “the Palestinian people’s rights and resistance in defense of its land and holy sites.”
For his part, Nakhalah said: “The martyrdom of Soleimani is a sign of pride and dignity against America and the Zionist entity.”
Soleimani’s death is a big loss, but it will break the Palestinian resistance, he added.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has vowed “harsh retaliation” for Soleimani’s killing and dubbed the deceased commander the “international face of resistance.”
Tehran considers both Hamas and the Jihad as part of Iran’s “resistance axis” in the region, in addition to Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Shiite groups in Iraq, Yemen and Syria.
However, the relationship between Iran and the Jihad is more advanced than the one with Hamas.
