(Times Of Israel) Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were given military training in Iran, a captured commander in the terror group revealed in an interrogation, video excerpts of which were published by the Shin Bet security agency on Tuesday.
Basel Mahadi, an Islamic Jihad unit commander who was nabbed by troops in Gaza on December 20, detailed in the video how he left Gaza and was sent to Iran for military training. He was shown speaking in Arabic with an interrogator. The released video included an English translation of the conversation in subtitles.
Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of being a key force behind the devastating Hamas-led attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Attackers succeeded in disabling the high-tech Gaza border fence, allowing some 3,000 terrorists to stream across the boundary from Gaza and carry out massacres in southern Israeli regions.
Mahadi said he joined the PIJ in around 2010 and was in charge of a unit that specialized in using mortars and rockets, engineering, sniper techniques and anti-tank missiles. The PIJ is a Gaza terror group aligned with Hamas.
“My commander called me and said that I should go to Iran for a sniper course, I will benefit from it and my salary will increase when I return,” Mahadi recalled, in the excerpts from the interrogation provided by the Shin Bet.
“I went from the Gaza Strip to Egypt where I stayed for about two weeks, from there I went to Syria for a few days and then to Lebanon. After two weeks, we went from Syria to Iran,” he said, noting he was given $1,000 dollars to cover expenses.
“In Iran, the course was 15 days. It had physical fitness training and shooting training on different types of weapons,” Mahadi added.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were trained in Iran, a captured commander in the terror group reveals in an interrogation published by the Shin Bet security agency.
Basel Mahadi, an Islamic Jihad platoon commander, who was nabbed by troops in Gaza on December 20, details… pic.twitter.com/8xuOhKxCxB
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