A Beirut-based leader of Hamas claimed last week that an alliance between Iran and North Korea would help advance an anti-American axis in the East while making it possible to launch a strike on US soil, the Times of Israel reported.
Ali Barakeh said in an interview last Thursday that while Iran can target US bases in the Middle East, its alliance with North Korea could allow for strikes against the US mainland since Pyongyang has nuclear-capable ICBMs that could reach the United States.
It was reported in the Associated Press last month that there is evidence that the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 used weapons from North Korea.
According to weapons expert N.R. Jenzen-Jones, Pyongyang has long supported Palestinian terrorist groups and there is documented evidence that North Korean weapons were among “interdicted supplies.”
Barakeh said Hamas leaders have been strengthening ties with US adversaries throughout the globe, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, boasting that “all of America’s enemies” are “growing closer.”
He noted that China sent envoys to meet with Hamas leadership in Qatar while both Russia and China are meeting with Hamas, with a Hamas delegation traveling to Moscow and soon to Beijing.
Late last month, US and South Korean troops conducted live-fire military drills aimed at improving their ability to combat a possible “Hamas-style surprise artillery attack” from North Korea, South Korea’s Ground Operations Command said in a statement.
The drills simulated a response to a Hamas-style attack similar to the attacks launched in Israel on October 7 with the exercises practicing strikes to “remove the origins of the enemy’s long-range artillery provocations” early on.
