IRAN reportedly helped Hamas terrorists plot their surprise attack on Israel over several weaks – with the death toll now hitting a grim 1,000 milestone.

Hamas insiders said that top officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked on the plans since August – and gave the go-ahead at a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon on Monday.

Militants from Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia which runs much of Lebanon and has often clashed with Israel, also said Iran helped plot the slaughter.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini praised the attacks on Twitter yesterday.

He said: “God willing, the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces throughout the region.”

Khameini accompanied his tweet with a clip of terrified civilians fleeing a music festival where Hamas killed 260 people.

But Hamas boss Mahmoud Mirdawi told the Wall Street Journal that the Palestinian group had planned the attacks by itself.

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He said: “This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision.”

Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi spoke to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah on Sunday.

MPs in the Iranian capital Tehran broke out in chants of ‘Death to Israel’ after news of the Hamas attack broke.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said: “We know that there were meetings in Syria and in Lebanon with other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel.

“So obviously it’s easy to understand that they tried to coordinate.

“The proxies of Iran in our region, they tried to be coordinated as much as possible with Iran.”

The Hamas and Hezbollah insiders said the attacks were aimed at disrupting talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish normal diplomatic relations.

More to follow