Hamas hails Iran’s 'heroic' missile strikes in retaliation for deaths of key leaders

Iran had vowed retaliation after Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, top leadership in Lebanon

Hamas praised on Tuesday what it called Iran's "heroic" missile attacks avenging the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.

"We congratulate the heroic rocket launch carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, on large areas of our occupied territories, in response to the occupation's continuing crimes against the peoples of the region, and in retaliation for the blood of our nation’s heroic martyrs," the group said.

Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Tehran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a "painful response" against its enemy.

Iran had vowed to retaliate following Israeli strikes that killed the top leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, including that group's leader Hassan Nasrallah, a towering figure in Iran's network of fighters across the region.

In a statement, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the attack was also in response to Israel's assassination in July of former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, locked in nearly a year of war with Israel, celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave after being intercepted by Israel's iron dome, but caused no human losses, witnesses said.

Israeli forces operating in central Gaza opened fire at a gathering of Palestinians, killing at least three people and wounding others, medics said.

Some Palestinian residents said some people tried to approach the road connecting north and south Gaza in an apparent attempt to return to homes from where the Israeli army evicted them, taking advantage of the Iranian attacks.

The Israeli military said it opened fire against a group of Palestinian "suspects" who posed a threat to forces operating in central Gaza and identified that some of them were hit.

"There were no casualties among the forces and the incident is under control," the military statement said.

In Nuseirat, one of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families and killed three people, medics said. Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 43 people on Tuesday.