A Hamas military drill in the Gaza Strip in March 2018. Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

JNS.org – Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admitted on Monday that the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for “building the strength” of the Palestinian terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip by supplying it with both weapons and funding.

Speaking to a youth gathering in Gaza, Sinwar said Iran deserved “the greatest credit for building our strength. … It has provided us with weapons and money, without which we would not have reached this point,” London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Tuesday.

Sinwar also said that Hamas had created a joint “operations room” with 13 other Palestinian factions with the aim of confronting Israel.

He warned that the terrorist organization could turn Israeli cities into “ghost towns” and had enough rockets to fire on Tel Aviv “for six months in a row,” according to Ynet.

Meanwhile, Hamas threatened that cuts in financial aid from Qatar to Gaza would lead to an escalation in violence, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported on Tuesday.

The report also said that the Qatari envoy to Gaza, Mohammed Al Emadi, had told Hamas during his last visit that Qatar would struggle to continue transferring $30 million dollars a month to Gaza.