The armed forces chief of staff says the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas fighters accelerated its decline, pledging Iran will continue to back what he called the “resistance front”.

Major-General Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, made the remarks in a message marking the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

The deadly assault and mass kidnapping of Israelis “upset the calculations of the resistance front’s enemies” and turned its “defensive strategy into an offensive strategy for the legitimate defence of the Palestinian people”.

Abdollahi said the “epic deeds” of slain leaders – including Qassem Soleimani, Hassan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Sinwar – “will continue and will determine the end of the occupying regime”.

The policies of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, on Palestine and the resistance front will continue “until the liberation of holy Jerusalem”, he added.