A top commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel came as a surprise to them, its Hezbollah allies and even the Palestinian group's political leaders.
Iran, slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and senior Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh "were unaware of the October 7 attack,” said Esmail Qaani, head of the foreign operations wing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Quds Force.
Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating the October 7 attacks, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Tehran funded, trained and planned the assault as the culmination of its longstanding support for Hamas.
Successor to Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, Qaani has mostly maintained a low profile and survived serial Israeli assassinations of IRGC commanders during a surprise military campaign in June.
According to Qaani, Haniyeh was preparing for a trip to Iraq when he was surprised to learn of the assault on Israel by Hamas. Haniyeh, a senior Palestinian politician and Hamas’s political leader, served as chairman of the group from 2017 until his assassination by Israel in Tehran in July 2024.
Qaani said he traveled to Lebanon on the afternoon of October 7 and met Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to discuss next steps.
“During the meeting, Nasrallah decided to launch attacks on Israel on October 8,” he said, noting that a large number of Lebanese civilians were holidaying away from homes in southern Lebanon at the time.
On October 8, Hezbollah fired rockets and artillery at multiple Israeli military sites in northern Israel, including around the disputed Shebaa Farms in solidarity with Hamas. Israel responded with heavy artillery fire.
The Jewish State carried out multiple strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including pager explosions in September 2024 that killed more than 30 Hezbollah commanders.
Later that month, an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including Nasrallah. A subsequent air campaign and ground incursion killed over 3,000 people.
Hezbollah disarmament
Qaani added that if Israel could disarm or destroy Hezbollah militarily, it would have continued fighting without pause, but instead Israel requested a ceasefire to regroup.
“While some Israeli officials prematurely claimed Hezbollah’s destruction, battlefield realities showed otherwise,” he said.
Lebanon’s government has unveiled plans to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025, aiming to make the Lebanese Armed Forces the country’s sole armed force even as Israel maintains an armed presence in parts of the country's south.
Hezbollah, with backing from Iran, has resisted handing over its weapons.
Prosecutors said that the man, identified as 27-year-old Maor Kringel, was arrested in August after more than a year of carrying out espionage missions for Iranian agents.
According to the indictment, Kringel had been in contact with individuals acting on behalf of Tehran from mid-2024 until his arrest.
Prosecutors allege he knowingly worked under the direction of Iranian agents, receiving payments in cryptocurrency in exchange for carrying out tasks.
Court documents allege he documented dozens of sensitive sites across Israel — including ports, shopping centers, private homes, municipal buildings and government institutions.
The Iranian handler also offered him $30,000 to assassinate his own commander but he did not carry out the assignment.
However, prosecutors say the reservist used his military position to provide Iranian handlers with the locations of army bases and also photographed the Shin Bet headquarters to pass on to them.
Kringel is officially charged with aiding an enemy during wartime, 26 counts of sharing intelligence that could assist the enemy and 12 counts of sharing intelligence with the enemy with the intent to harm national security, according to Israeli media.
Israeli security forces have also arrested Kringel's associate Tal Amram, 26. He was recruited by Kringel and connected with Iranian agents. Prosecutors say the two Holon residents even burned IDF uniforms together in a grove in the city.
Another Israeli citizen charged with spying for Iran
In a separate case, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and police said on Friday an Israeli citizen was arrested on suspicion of gathering intelligence for Iran while working at a hotel near the Dead Sea.
The 23-year-old allegedly photographed the hotel and surrounding areas, the agencies said. Police said the investigation was ongoing.
The arrests and indictments highlight a growing concern among Israeli authorities over purported Iranian espionage activity.
In the past two years, dozens of suspects have been arrested.
Officials say Kringel’s case is treated as part of a wider campaign by Iran to recruit Israeli citizens and residents for intelligence gathering and sabotage.
Tehran suffered significant intelligence setbacks during the surprise US-Israeli military campaign over the summer, with Israeli-directed drone attacks and air strikes killing nuclear commanders and senior commanders along with hundreds of other military personnel and civilians.
Iran’s intelligence ministry aired a segment on national TV last week displaying information and documents that it says it obtained from Israel’s intelligence apparatus on the Jewish state's nuclear program.
The broadcast featured a series of video files that reportedly contain material from inside Israeli nuclear and other sensitive facilities, including the Dimona site. It also presented alleged details about personnel working on Israel’s nuclear program.
However, the documentary was later criticized and even mocked by both Islamic Republic loyalists and dissidents who said many of the pictures shown in the documentary as original materials were already publicly available.
