Hamas urges Iran to avoid targeting neighboring countries as war widens
Event date: 2026-03-14
On March 14, Hamas called on Iran to avoid striking neighboring countries while still affirming Tehran’s right to defend itself against Israel and the United States. The statement was the movement’s first public appeal to Iran since the war spread across the region.
The group said Iran could respond to aggression by all available means in line with international norms and laws, but it urged Iranian leaders to keep the conflict from spreading further. Hamas also called on the international community to work toward an immediate halt to the war.
The appeal shows a careful balancing act. Hamas continues to present itself as aligned with Iran against Israel and the U.S., yet it is also signaling concern that the fighting now threatens other Middle Eastern states. The source says Iran has already carried out missile and drone attacks against at least 10 countries, and Qatar said it intercepted two missiles on Saturday.
Hamas had previously condemned the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, calling it a heinous crime and citing his support for Palestinians. The new statement went further by explicitly asking Tehran to spare neighboring states, a move that suggests the spillover has become a problem for allied groups as well as for governments targeted by the strikes.
The source also said a Hamas official had been in contact with Iranian and regional officials, including in Qatar, Turkey and Iraq, urging them to help stop the war. Taken together, the remarks show Hamas trying to avoid a broader regional rupture while still defending Iran’s right to retaliate. The group appears to want de-escalation at the edges and resistance at the center of the conflict.
The statement matters because Hamas is trying to manage the regional spillover, not just the war's core front. By naming neighboring countries, it is acknowledging that the conflict is already affecting states far beyond Gaza and Israel.
The reference to contacts with officials in Qatar, Turkey and Iraq suggests the movement is working multiple channels at once. That makes the appeal more than a public message: it is also a bid for quiet diplomacy while allies and rivals test each other's red lines.
For now, the source supports a narrow but important reading. Hamas still backs Iran's right to respond, but it is asking Tehran to stop short of widening the war. That tension is likely to remain part of the political landscape as long as missile and drone attacks continue.
The statement also gives outside governments a clearer diplomatic marker. If Hamas is publicly urging restraint while backing Iran's right to respond, mediators can point to an opening, however narrow, for keeping the war from spreading into Lebanon, Iraq or the Gulf. The catch is that the group is not renouncing Tehran's position; it is only asking for a boundary around retaliation. That makes the appeal significant but fragile, because the boundary depends on actors who are already trading drones, missiles and warnings.
For mediators, the key question is whether this becomes a durable restraint or a temporary public signal. Hamas has not broken with Iran; it has only tried to set a limit on where retaliation should land. That leaves the appeal useful as a diplomatic reference point, but still vulnerable to the next missile launch or drone strike.
