TEHRAN – Seyed Rasoul Mousavi, an assistant to the Iranian foreign minister, has said that the Palestinian Hamas resistance group cannot be separated from the Gaza Strip, where it exerts authority. 

The Iranian diplomat also said that embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will repeat the mistakes made by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

“Although Biden is claiming that he told Netanyahu not to repeat the U.S. mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan in Gaza, it seems that Netanyahu has not option but to repeat the U.S. mistakes,” Mousavi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

He added, “Hamas belongs to Gaza and Gaza cannot be separated from Hamas. Israel should swallow the bitter pill of this reality and accept the reality on the ground.”

Israel is trying to wage a ground attack against the besieged Gaza Strip but it has so far failed to do so. Hamas has said that Israel's ground incursion into the blockaded Gaza Strip via three directions on Saturday was a failed attempt by the occupying regime with the resistance inflicting losses on its troops.

Hamas has said its forces are ready to confront Israeli attacks with "full force" after Israel announced it was expanding ground operations.

On Saturday night, Hamas released footage showing Palestinian resistance forces repelling an Israeli ground attack. The footage purportedly showed Hamas targeting an Israeli Panther-type military vehicle successfully. 

The resistance fighters engaged in fierce battles with Israeli troops in Gaza's northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of al-Bureij, both located near the separation wall, the armed wing of Hamas announced. 

"The al-Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront the Zionist aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions," Hamas said.

"Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory," It added.