TEHRAN- A senior U.S. administration official said Saturday that the U.S. cannot declare if Iran took a direct involvement in the Palestinians’ latest attack on Israel, but that the U.S. will investigate the subject.

It is “too early to say whether the state of Iran was directly involved,” the official stated, adding, “We’re going to be looking at them very closely.”

The official alleged that “there is no doubt that Iran provides Hamas with funding, equipment, and weapons and that the U.S. would continue to take measures to hold Tehran responsible.”

After a week that saw thousands of Israeli settlers desecrating the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) despite warnings and the rising Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip has launched "Operation Al-Aqsa Storm".

The operation, which began on Saturday morning, took Israel by surprise on multiple fronts. It is unprecedented in the past 50 years.

It was the biggest attack on the Zionist regime in 50 years. It is haunting the invaders of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It came 50 years and a day after forces from Egypt and Syria caught Israel off-guard. Battles were still taking place in 22 locations, according to Israelis.

The armed wing of Hamas said more than 5,000 rockets had been fired from the besieged Gaza into the occupied territories within a space of 20 minutes.

A senior Hamas leader has said that the group had captured enough Israeli soldiers during the unprecedented attack to make Israeli authorities free all Palestinian prisoners.

The head of a regional Israeli council northeast of the Gaza Strip had been killed in a firefight, according to the council. “The president of the regional council, Ofir Liebstein, was killed during an exchange of fire with [the resistance],” the Israeli Shaar Negev settlement council said in a statement.

As rocket barrages hit Israeli settlements and other sensitive sites, units of Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, infiltrated into Israeli settlements and military bases.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN had said that fighters, who infiltrated from a number of different points, “killed DOZENS of Israelis.”

What Israel doesn't know is how many Palestinian resistance fighters had infiltrated from Gaza into the settlements.

Hamas media displayed videos of bodies of Israeli soldiers brought into Gaza by its forces, and Palestinian resistance fighters touring an Israeli town in jeeps.