DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israeli officials should face trial for their “crimes against Palestinians”, state TV reported on Tuesday, a day before U.S. President Joe Biden was due to visit Israel.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s clerical rulers have been vocal in their support for the Palestinian cause. Tehran makes no secret of its backing for Hamas, funding and arming the Islamist group that controls Gaza.
“No one can confront Muslims and the resistance forces if the Zionist regime’s crimes against Palestinians continue … the bombardment of Gaza must stop immediately,” Khamenei said.
“The Zionist regime’s officials should be tried for their crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” he added.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas after the group’s gunmen killed 1,300 people, mainly civilians, during a rampage through southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7, the deadliest single day in Israel’s 75-year history.
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip with air strikes that have killed more than 2,800 Palestinians, a quarter of them children, and driven around half of the 2.3 million Gazans from their homes. It has imposed a total blockade on the enclave, blocking food, fuel and medical supplies, which are rapidly running out.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, editing by Christina Fincher and Gareth Jones)
