The knife used by an Arab terrorist in a stabbing attack in Kiryat Arba. Photo: Israel Police.

An associate professor at Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip told Iran’s regime controlled Press TV on Wednesday that the country is one of the main supporters of the current wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

“Iran is definitely one of the main supporters of the current Intifada,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, claiming that many countries are backing the current spate of attacks.

Abusada said Iran is “dedicated to putting an end to Israeli occupation, ending the Israeli settlement expansion, and also going for Palestinian statehood.”

He lauded Iran for its support for the “Palestinians politically, financially and militarily,” which he said goes back to the Islamic Revolution in 1979 when anti-Western Islamists forced the former Iranian regime from power and severed previously robust ties with Israel.

He said Iran pledged $750 million to Hamas and other terrorist groups when Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 — a year before the group drove the Palestinian Authority from Gaza —  “to stand against Israeli occupation, Israeli settlement expansion and other Israeli measures against the Palestinians.”

Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Iran had actually cut funding from Islamic Jihad after the terrorist group refused to support the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. And Iran also reportedly cut funding from Hamas after it withdrew from Syria and refused to back Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon on Wednesday reported that, according to the Palestinian press, Iran has continued to use economic pressure on Islamic Jihad by withholding members’ salaries.

Israel is concerned that the recent nuclear deal between world powers and Iran over the country’s nuclear program will free up tens of billions of dollars for the ayatollah-led regime to use to boost its terrorist proxies across the Middle East, including terrorist groups in Gaza, which in the summer of 2014 fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities before, during and after an Israeli military operation in the coastal enclave.

Iran also backs Hezbollah in Lebanon, on Israel’s northern border, politically, financially and militarily. Hezbollah, however, backs the Syrian president and has sent thousands of its fighters to battle on his and his military’s behalf.