The top commander of Iran's Quds force said the resistance front supported the Tehran-backed Hamas militant group in its war with Israel in Gaza.

"Your brothers in the Axis of Resistance stand united with you … the resistance will not allow the enemy to achieve its dirty goals in Gaza and Palestine," Esmail Qaani said in a message to the commanders of the Tehran-backed group on Thursday, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Iran, which refers to its aligned armed groups around the Middle East as being part of the "Resistance Axis," has warned Israel of escalation if it failed to end aggressions in the Gaza Strip.

The Quds Force is the arm of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that controls its allied militia in the region, from Lebanon to Iraq and Yemen to Syria.

Tensions in the region have flared since a deadly attack by Hamas militants who burst through the border from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages, including children, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel launched an air, ground and sea offensive in Gaza, killing more than 11,500 people, around 40% of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave Gaza Strip.