Iran FM slams ‘Zionist tyrants’ for murdering Gaza protesters
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has denounced the murder of more than a dozen Palestinians at hands of “Zionist tyrants” during a mass demonstration against the Tel Aviv regime’s occupation of their homeland.
Having stolen their land, the Israeli regime now murders the peaceful Palestinian protesters during their march against the regime’s brutalities, Zarif said on his Twitter page on Saturday.
At least 16 Palestinians were killed and over 1,400 others injured on Friday by Israeli forces who were confronting one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations in recent years along the Gaza border with the occupied territories.
The majority of the wounded suffered from tear gas inhalation or injuries inflicted by live fire and rubber-coated steel bullets.
Ahead of the protest, the Israeli army had deployed more than 100 snipers to the Gaza border with permission to fire.
Dubbed “The Great March of Return,” Friday’s rallies in Gaza coincided with the 42nd anniversary of Land Day, which commemorates the murder of six Palestinians by Israeli forces in 1976.
The Return rallies will culminate on 15 May that marks Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe) on which Israel was created.
The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting over Israel’s massacre of over a dozen Palestinians during a mass rally in Gaza, with the UN chief calling for a probe into the bloodshed.
Palestinian officials as well as several Muslim countries condemned the Israeli response to the peaceful Gaza demonstration.
In a televised statement on Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held Israel responsible for the violence in Gaza, urging the United Nations to take “immediate action to provide international protection to our defenseless Palestinian people in the face of this continuous and escalating daily aggression.”
Additionally on Friday, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting over the situation in Gaza.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for “an independent and transparent investigation” into the Gaza clashes.
