News - Middle East: The chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has lauded the ongoing anti-Israel operation by the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups as the initial step toawrds the occupying regime’s early collapse.

Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks on Monday as he described Hamas-led Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the Israeli regime on October 7 as an event that exposed the illegal entity to a “political and security earthquake.”
Stressing that the war on the besieged Gaza Strip was “the first stage in the early collapse of the fake Zionist regime,” Salami said Operation al-Aqsa Storm had a tactical aspect in terms of geography but its sphere of influence spanned all across the globe.
“Today, as acknowledged by everyone, the Zionist regime has not only suffered defeat but also been humiliated, and Hamas, single-handedly and without reliance on any other power, has inflicted a major defeat on them," the IRGC chief added.
Salami underlined that the occupying regime would not be able to recover from such a humiliating defeat despite its desperate attempts.
“No matter what the Zionists do in the future, the regime cannot recover from such humiliation,” he said, adding, “Israel's delusion of grandeur collapsed with the operation by Hamas and its powerless reality was revealed to everyone.”
Stressing that the bombing of residential buildings is not a sign of power and defies any logic, Salami said, “Today, the fake identity of the Zionist regime has fallen apart and nothing else is left of it but a hollow shell.”
In an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that the Islamic Republic would not be a bystander if the Israeli occupying regime pressed ahead with its savagery against the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.