Raisi calls on int’l bodies to stop Israeli crimes
EU: Israel breaks int’l law in Gaza
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reminded international organizations of their responsibility to tackle the crisis in the Gaza Strip, which is tormented by the Zionist regime’s atrocities.
Addressing a cabinet session on Wednesday, Raisi strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s crimes against the people of Gaza, Tasnim news agency reported.
The war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas raged for a fifth day on Wednesday, as Israeli warplanes hammered neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling for safety, AP reported.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel on Tuesday of breaking international law by imposing a total blockade of Gaza in response to the large-scale attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people Israelis according to the Israeli military.
He added Israel’s response — which has so far killed at least 1,055 Gazans, according to local authorities — had to be in line with international humanitarian law, and a decision to impose a total blockade on Gaza contravened this standard, Reuters reported.
More than 150 people have also been taken by Palestinian fighters.
Aid payments for PA
After an emergency meeting to discuss the repercussions of the attack, Borrell also said an “overwhelming majority” of EU foreign ministers supported continuing aid payments for the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank.
Borrell made his statement the day after European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said all EU development aid for Palestinians was suspended, only for the commission to disown his announcement after a backlash from EU governments.
Borrell had invited the Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers to take part in the meeting in Oman, by video conference. However, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen did not want to participate in a meeting that would also be addressed by PA Minister Riyad al-Maliki so neither ended up taking part, officials said.
Israel has vowed an unprecedented offensive against Hamas.
More than 250,000 people in Gaza have fled their homes, the UN said. Most of them have crowded into schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Most of the territory’s residents are unable to leave due to a years-long blockade maintained by Israel and Egypt.
Israel has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity, and medicine into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt was shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing. Gaza’s power authority said its only power plant has since run out of fuel, leaving the territory without electricity.
Borrell on Tuesday also mentioned that the UN had stated that “cutting water, cutting electricity, and cutting food to a mass of civilian people is against international law”.
Israel criticized the UN statement, accusing the world body’s human rights chief of failing to condemn Hamas as terrorists.
The 27-nation EU says it is the biggest provider of external assistance to Palestinians.
Letter to UN
Also, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, raised the alarm in a Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned of a “human catastrophe” amid ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, calling on the UN to adopt immediate measures to prevent the occupying regime from perpetrating further crimes and rights violations against Palestinians.
He touched on the plight and suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the illegal entity over the past seven decades, blaming Western countries, led by the US, for the dire situation in Palestine.
Also on Tuesday, he expressed his country’s support for the Palestinian resistance spiritually, politically, and media-wise. Rejecting claims that countries other than Palestine are behind the “courageous” operation against Israel, he said the Palestinian resistance itself made the decision to launch it.
‘No evidence’ of Iran’s role
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that his country has no evidence of direct Iranian involvement in the attack by Hamas, AFP reported.
The Pentagon chief noted that Tehran has backed Hamas for years, adding, “But in this particular instance, we don’t have any evidence that there was direct involvement in the planning or the execution of this attack.”
That assessment was echoed by the US State Department, which emphasized that it could nevertheless change.
“Our experience in these matters tells us that it’s premature to draw any final conclusions about this issue,” spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Biden administration hasn’t ruled out new sanctions against Iran in relation to renewed conflict in the Middle East, but no decisions have been made, Bloomberg reported.
“I wouldn’t take anything off the table in terms of future possible actions, but I certainly don’t want to get ahead of where we are now,” she said.
Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday rejected the claims as “miscalculations,” praising the Palestinian youth, who were sole masterminds of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel.