The Israeli Shin Bet recently had great success and managed to crack the way in which the Iranian Quds Force tries to recruit Palestinians from Judea and Samaria for terrorist activity and smuggling weapons into the West Bank.
The Shin Bet’s announcement this week stated that it recently arrested two Palestinians, Yosef Mansour and Marsil Mansour, who were recruited via the Internet by the Iranian Quds Force and Hezbollah to smuggle weapons to the West Bank and trade arms with the assisting of criminal elements in Israel.
After the IDF’s major operation in the Gaza Strip in May 2021 (“Guardian of the Walls”), Iran increased the smuggling of weapons into the territories of Judea and Samaria in order to establish armed terrorist groups there and was successful in this mainly in the north of the West Bank.
Last August, General Hossein Salami hosted Ziyad Al-Nakhala, Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad, at the IRGC headquarters, to discuss the situation of the organization following the IDF’s operation in the Gaza Strip against the Islamic Jihad.
According to sources in the Gaza Strip, at the meeting it was agreed to strengthen the organization’s activities in the northern West Bank.
In an interview with the website of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, General Hossein Salami announced that Iran will arm the resistance forces in the West Bank as it did in the Gaza Strip and that the process has already begun.
He added that the campaign against Israel will be expanded from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and that there is no difference between them.
He mocked Israel for not being able to stop the flow of weapons into the West Bank and saying that it cannot be safe from Palestinian fire.
He added that the Gaza Strip is not the only battlefield of the resistance and that the struggle has now moved to the West Bank.
The Iranian Quds Force is headed by General Ismail Qa’ani, who was General Qassem Soleimani’s deputy from 1998 until he was assassinated by the US military in Iraq in January 2020. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed him as Qassem Soleimani’s replacement immediately after his death and since then he has been trying to enter to his big shoes.
The assassination of Qassem Soleimani was an important move in the war against Iranian expansion in the Middle East and its activities in the field of terrorism, three years after his assassination one can only speculate what the situation would have been today if he had not been assassinated.
Soleimani is the one who established the strangulation ring around Israel and the arming project of the pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and the Gaza Strip with rockets, precision missiles and drones that will be used against Israel in the future.
He was the one who established ground platforms for terrorism against Israel in various places in the Middle East, he created a network of Shiite and Sunni fighters loyal to Iran from Afghanistan to Syria and Yemen.
General Ismail Qa’ani lacks charisma and military acumen, he is mainly a technocrat but it seems that he is starting to implement the strategy of his commander Qassem Soleimani in relation to Israel.
The strategy of uniting all fronts announced by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations is the fighting doctrine devised by Qassem Soleimani, it is not a Palestinian doctrine.
According to statements by senior officials in Iran, the year 2023 will be a year in which the effort to realize Qassem Soleimani’s vision will be intensified and the struggle against Israel and against the American presence in Iraq and Syria will only intensify.
According to security sources, General Ismail Ka’ani had a significant part in organizing the latest rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
The Wall Street Journal reported on April 13 that General Ismail Ka’ani coordinated the rocket attack from Lebanon towards the Galilee with Hezbollah and Hamas, and that he was the one who pressed to actually carry out the attack.
Ismail Ka’ani coordinates the terrorist activity with Hezbollah and with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
Ismail Ka’ani has excellent connections with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and with the heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, not to mention his close ties with the leaders of the Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Qa’ani implements the directives of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he often visits Syria, Iraq and Lebanon from where he activates Hezbollah and the pro-Iranian militias to make sure that Iranian policy is actually carried out on the ground.
Ismail Qa’ani is also responsible for a series of attacks against Israeli targets to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani and the assassination of other senior Iranian officials.
According to security sources in Israel, the decision to carry out the revenge attacks was made by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and he assigned the task to the Quds Force.
Iran has a mechanism for terrorist attacks abroad, Unit 400 for special operations of the Quds Force, which is directly subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, this unit is connected to the Hezbollah organization and coordinates with it the attacks abroad.
According to Western intelligence sources, Iran is determined to avenge the death of the two Iranian advisers to the Revolutionary Guards who were recently killed in Syria in a bombing attributed to Israel.
The Iranians are determined to find a military answer that will deter Israel from continuing the bombing of Iranian targets in Syria.
Iran appears to be planning drone attacks on Israeli-owned merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, General Ismail Ka’ani has been tasked with this mission.
Iran has carried out at least four drone attacks on Israeli commercial ships in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea over the past two years, the last one being in February of this year.
Israel and the US are following the activities of General Ismail Qa’ani, he has not yet been able to reach the operational level of General Qassem Soleimani, however he is the oldest and most experienced officer in the Iranian Quds Force who is the spearhead against Israel in the Middle East and hence is dangerous for Israel and the US.
As a lesson from the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, General Ismail Qa’ani takes precautionary measures during his movements in the Middle East, however, according to Israeli security sources, he has no immunity, he is considered a terrorist and a legitimate target for assassination when necessary, the decision to kill him is a political decision.
The United States may also assassinate him, Brian Hook, who was the special envoy of the United States for the issue of Iran, told Al-Sharq Alawsat newspaper on January 23, 2020 that Ismail Qa’ani is expected to face a fate similar to that of Qassem Soleimani if he continues on his path to kill Americans.
