Iranian FM Censures Israel’s Bloody Attack on Peaceful Protests in Gaza
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the Tel Aviv regime’s latest deadly attack on peaceful Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip on Land Day.
“On the eve of Passover (of all days), which commemorates God liberating Prophet Moses and his people from tyranny, Zionist tyrants murder peaceful Palestinian protesters—whose land they have stolen—as they march to escape their cruel and inhuman apartheid bondage. #Shameful,” Zarif said in a message posted on his official Twitter account on Saturday.
The tweet came following the Israeli military’s massacre of over a dozen Palestinians during an anti-occupation mass rally in Gaza on Friday.
According to the figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, 16 Palestinians were killed and over 1,400 others wounded on Friday after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at Palestinian protesters marking Land Day and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified border fence.
Ahead of the protest, the Israeli military had deployed tanks and 100 snipers with the authority to use live rounds on the Gaza border.
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, which marks Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe) on which Israel was created.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.
Tel Aviv has waged three wars on the coastal enclave since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead.