By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Iran’s attack on Israel drew applause from many Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, a rare reward for the Israeli offensive on their enclave, although some said they suspected Tehran of organizing the Attacks more for show than to inflict real damage.
“For the first time we saw rockets that did not land in our areas. These rockets were heading towards occupied Palestine,” Abu Abdallah said, referring to the land that became Israel in 1948 rather than the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.
“We hope that if Iran or any other country goes to war, a solution for Gaza will be closer than ever. The Americans may have to resolve Gaza to eliminate the roots of the problem,” said Abu Abdallah, 32, using a nickname rather than his full name.
Many people in Gaza feel abandoned by their Middle Eastern neighbors since Israel launched an offensive that killed more than 33,000 people in response to attacks on Israeli soil by Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages on October 7.
However, support has come from Iran and its regional proxies, particularly Tehran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, who are allies of Hamas’ Islamist leaders in Gaza.
Images broadcast from the enclave showed many residents, including inside displaced people’s tents, whistling and others chanting Allah Akbar (God is greatest) with joy as the sky was lit by Iranian rockets and Israeli interceptions.
“Anyone who decides to attack Israel, who dares to attack Israel at a time when the whole world is acting in its service, is a hero in the eyes of the Palestinians, whether we share their (Iranian) ideology or not,” Majed Abu Hamza said. 52 years old, father of seven children, from Gaza City.
“We have been massacred for more than six months and no one dares to do anything. Today, Iran, after its consulate was hit, is retaliating against Israel, which brings joy to our hearts,” Abu Hamza said.
Iran launched the attack following a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria on April 1, which killed senior Revolutionary Guard commanders and followed months of clashes between Israel and Iran’s regional allies. Iran, triggered by the war in Gaza.
Hamas, engaged in a war with Israel in Gaza since October 7, defended the Iranian attack, saying in a statement that the attack was “a natural right and a deserved response” to the attack on the Iranian consulate.
The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee (PRC), an armed group fighting Israel alongside Hamas in Gaza, said Iranian involvement could strengthen the Palestinian cause, saying that for Israel it was “the final nail in its coffin”.
Not everyone was supportive. Some Palestinians perceived the attack as Iran’s attempt simply to preserve its dignity.
“Curtains drawn on this face-saving play…The Palestinian people are the only ones paying the price with their flesh and blood,” wrote Munir al-Gaghoub, an official in President Mahmoud’s Fatah party Abbas, on his Facebook page. (NASDAQ:).
Others on social media said they believed the attack was agreed upon with the United States so as not to cause any damage, pointing to the hours it took for Iranian drones to get close to Israel, and claiming that this gave Israel enough time to take them down.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its military strikes in the Gaza Strip, killing 43 Palestinians and injuring 62 others in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.