Nathan Sales, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism, told Newsmax on Monday that "Iran's fingerprints are all over" the attack on Israel.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel over the weekend, firing missiles in an assault that killed more than 700 people there, according to official reports. Israel has since responded by declaring war on Hamas and commencing airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 550 Palestinians.
Sales said on "National Report" that "Israel has suffered an absolutely appalling assault, estimates today are at least 800 innocent civilians were murdered by the Hamas terrorists."
When asked if other groups besides Hamas, such as Hezbollah, were involved in the attack, Sales said they "absolutely" could be.
He went on to say that "Iran's fingerprints are all over" the incident, which he said couldn't have happened without "state support" of some kind.
"An attack of this scale, involving this kind of money and this degree of planning, it can only happen with state support, and I've got to tell you: Iran's fingerprints are all over this attack," Sales said.
He also said, "This is the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust," and warned that "Israel is going to have to respond with a level of force that we haven't seen from Israel in many years."
Sales continued: "We're not just talking about a couple of airstrikes in Gaza. Instead, what Jerusalem is talking about is … a campaign to degrade and dismantle Hamas to the point where it's no longer capable of threatening the Israeli population."
The former ambassador said that while that's happening, "the United States needs to have Israel's back against all the naysayers who are already starting to criticize Israel and blame the victim."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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