TEHRAN - The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has received assurances from the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on the solidarity of the “Axis of Resistance” with Palestinian fighters.

Brig. Gen. Ismail Qaani said in a message on Thursday, “Your brothers in the axis of al-Quds and the resistance are united with you, and they will not allow the enemy to reach its dirty goals in Gaza and Palestine.”

The Axis of Resistance refers to an alliance among Iran, Syria and anti-Israeli groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere which have hit Israeli and U.S. targets in recent weeks in solidarity with Gaza.

Gen. Qaani praised the Hamas fighters’ Oct. 7 Operation al-Aqsa Storm, which caught Israel off guard and dispelled the regime’s fiction of supremacy in all spheres, including military might and intelligence capabilities.

He went on to add, “You created a great epic called the al-Aqsa Storm, which was accomplished with the help of God and by the holy fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades and the resistance in Gaza.”

“Palestine and the region after the al-Aqsa Storm will not be the same as before,” Gen. Qaani averred. 

In another part of his message, Qaani said, “You clearly showed the weakness and fragility of the usurping Zionist regime and you showed in a practical and decisive way that the regime is weaker than a spider’s web.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said the “real confrontation” in the Hamas-Israel war had only begun in recent days. 

Should the war drag on, it could benefit militant groups that fight guerrilla-style, rather than Israel with its conventional army, Amir Abdollahian noted. 

“It is now the time for a face-to-face confrontation between the Palestinian resistance groups and Israeli forces. This is what the resistance groups have been waiting for for weeks,” said the chief diplomat. 

“The Palestinian resistance sees this phase to its benefit and believes ground invasion means Israel’s paralysis [in Gaza],” he added. “I can say clearly, considering the knowledge we have and following meetings with leaders in the region, that the fate of this war will be determined by resistance groups, not Israel.”

Israel has claimed it intends to eliminate Hamas. Military analysts have cast doubt on such an ambition.

Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian studies forum of Tel Aviv University, says destroying Hamas would be highly complicated. He says it would be pretentious to believe you could uproot the idea that embodies Hamas.

Quite apart from the 25,000-plus strength of Hamas's military wing, it has 80-90,000 more members who are part of its social welfare infrastructure, or Dawa, he says.

Hamas's armed wing also has the use of an extensive network of tunnels and it has targeted Israeli forces with snipers and fighters armed with anti-tank missiles.