Egypt has approved the entry of an Iranian aid convoy into Gaza, a security official told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency on Wednesday.
The Iranian government had contacted Egypt to ask that the convoy be allowed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the Egyptian security official told Ma’an.
The food and medical aid will enter Gaza in two weeks, he said.
The announcement of the aid convoy comes as Iran continues to boast close relations with the terrorist organizations operating in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the relations between Iran and both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are better than they have ever been.
The spokesman also claimed that the Western media is trying to drive a wedge between Iran and Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in the wake of what he claimed was the “defeat” Israel suffered in the recent conflict in Gaza. He said that support for the struggle of the Arab people is a matter of principle for Iran.
During Israel’s recent Operation Pillar of Defense, which targeted the terror infrastructure in Gaza, terrorists fired Iranian-made Fajr missiles at central Israel.
Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said during the operation that Iran had supplied military aid to Hamas, which controls Gaza since taking power in a bloody coup in 2007.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari also said that Tehran had provided the “technology” for the Fajr missiles used to target Tel Aviv, but denied supplying the actual weapons. He claimed they were being “rapidly produced” in Gaza.
Senior officials in both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad openly admitted that they had received support and assistance from Iran on both the financial and military levels.
This assistance included the transfer of weapons and rockets, information on development of rockets, and training of operatives.
Despite the dispute between the parties due to Iran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood continue to see Iran as a strategic ally against Israel.