Iranian President Condemns Collective Punishment of Palestinians in Gaza
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani slammed the collective punishment being carried out by the Zionist regime of Israel against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“At times a Jewish person is killed in the occupied Palestine – and sometimes in a plot hatched by themselves (Israelis) - and then a whole nation is massacred (for that reason)," President Rouhani said on Saturday evening.
"And" Rouhani added "this is Pre-Islamic ignorant tradition."
The Iranian president also slammed the world powers for their silence on Zionists’ heinous crimes against the defenseless Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
Earlier, some countries such as Turkey and Egypt had called on Israel to halt what they called it “mass punishment” of the innocent people in Gaza.
The recent wave of violence against the Palestinians in Gaza started in revenge for the killings of three young Israeli settlers last month.
On June 12, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, as they were hitchhiking to their homes. Following the abduction, the Israel forces initiated an operation in search of the three teenagers, arresting some 350 Palestinians including nearly all of Hamas' leaders in the West Bank. Five Palestinians were killed during this military operation.
Israel accused the Resistance Movement Hamas of kidnapping the Israeli teens, but Hamas denied the accusation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas maintained that there was no evidence that Hamas was behind the kidnapping.
On 30 June, the Israeli military found the bodies of the three missing teenagers in a field north-west of Hebron. They had apparently been killed shortly after their abduction. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a tough response to the killings which resulted in burning alive a 16-year old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir who was kidnapped, tortured and killed.
Since July 8, Israel started attacks on Gaza, bombing civilian areas and public buildings. So far, more than 160 civilians in the Gaza Strip have been killed and over one thousands have been injured.
In response to Israel’s deadly attacks, Hamas been firing retaliatory rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Some 1.7 million people in Gaza are deprived of their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
