The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since October 8th. 

Iran’s supreme leader has told the head of Hamas in a meeting in Tehran that his country would not “directly” enter the war with Israel but emphasised a continuation of political and moral support, according to Reuters.

According to the report, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, that Iran and Hezbollah would not wage war on behalf of the Palestinian movement because it was not given a warning of the October 7 surprise attack. 

Iranian and Hamas officials told Reuters that Khamenei urged Haniyeh to “silence the voices” in the Palestinian campaign, calling for Iran and its Hezbollah to engage in the battle against Israel. 

The sitdown between the two officials comes as Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement, is fighting against a vindictive Israel, vowing to eliminate the armed branch. 

Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 11,500 Palestinians, including over 7,900 women and children, and wounded over 29,800 others.

On the day of the surprise series of coordinated attacks, Hamas’ preeminent military leader, Mohammed Deif, called on the so-called Axis of Resistance to mobilise with the Palestinian movement. 

“Our brothers in the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, this is the day when your resistance unites with your people in Palestine,” Deif said in an audio message.

Currently, attention has been placed on the strip’s biggest hospital complex, Al-Shifa Hospital.

Qatar called for an “urgent” investigation into Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza on Wednesday after the occupation forces raided the hospital.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands an urgent international investigation, including the dispatch of independent UN investigators to investigate the facts of targeting hospitals by the Israeli occupation army,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement. 

In the same statement, the Gulf state also strongly condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ (IOF) storming of the Al-Shifa. 

“Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, which led to the death of a number of patients, including children. It also considers this a war crime and a flagrant violation of international laws and agreements, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the Foreign Ministry added.

Israel has alleged that Hamas had operated from tunnels underneath the hospital and that the organisation’s fighters use the premises as a command post.

The White House on Tuesday said it had its own intelligence that Hamas was using Al Shifa to run its military.

However, Palestinian authorities in Gaza rejected Israeli claims that weapons were found in a raid on al-Shifa Hospital.

Hamas has also denied and dismissed the latest statements by both the Israelis and Americans.

“The occupation forces are still lying … as they brought some weapons, clothes, and tools and placed them in the hospital in a scandalous manner,” Qatar-based Hamas senior member Ezzat El Rashq said.