Al-Aqsa Storm Operation A Turning Point in History of Palestine: Iran’s Foreign Ministry

What follows is the statement released on Monday by the Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Storm operation:

Seventy-six years have passed since the usurpation of the Palestinian land, and the clear violation of the fundamental rights of its oppressed people, especially the right to self-determination and the right to life, has wounded the soul and spirit of the Muslim Ummah and all free nations, posing a chronic and steady challenge to peace and stability in the region.

Throughout decades of occupying the Palestinian land, the occupying and apartheid Zionist regime has pursued the policy of the genocide and displacement of Palestinians as well as the desecration of holy Muslim sites in occupied Palestine with the direct and indirect backing of its Western supporters, especially the US.

The action that the Palestinian resistance took a year ago on October 7, 2023, an operation codenamed Al-Aqsa Storm, was a turning point in the history of the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle against the occupation and oppression of the Zionist regime. Operation Al-Aqsa Storm was the outburst of the pent-up historical anger of people in Palestine in the face of eight decades of occupation, killing and genocide.

Over the past year, we have witnessed the continuation and intensification of the policy of genocide, mass killing and organized terrorism by the aggressor Zionist regime against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank as well as against the Lebanese nation.

Today, the Zionist regime is hated more than ever before by the public opinion of the free nations of the world, and the criminal prosecution and trial of the leaders of this regime on charges of committing the most serious international crimes, especially genocide, is a global demand.

The insistence of independent governments and free nations on the need to end the impunity of Zionist criminals and to deal with their crimes in the International Criminal Court, and their insistence that the International Court of Justice intervenes to stop the genocide- despite the obstruction and opposition of the US and other western supporters of the occupation regime- is a clear sign of the public desire to punish the perpetrators of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people and those who ordered the atrocities.

Despite the unprecedented crimes of the Israeli regime over the past year and in spite of the total destruction of Gaza and the massacre of more than 50 thousand innocents, the regime has failed to achieve its sinister goal of dislodging the resistance and the ideal of seeking righteousness vis-a-vis oppression, and the resistance has continued with even stronger motivation and passion.

Despite that the martyrdom of great figures and leaders of the resistance, such as Hamas political leader Martyr Ismail Haniyeh and Martyr Seyed Hassan Nasrallah the mujahid Secretary General of the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah, as well as a large number of commanders and officials of the Resistance Front is a great loss, the pure blood of these martyrs makes the cause of the liberation of Palestine and the resistance against the Zionist regime's hegemony over the region be alive and productive more than ever before.

Today, resistance is not exclusive to Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Islamic countries, and hatred toward occupation and genocide as well as support for the resistance against the usurping regime has become a global trend.

The fake Zionist regime, which is a clear symbol of official organized terrorism in the world, adds a new shameful page to its thick record of international crimes every time. Over the past year, the Zionists have not hit any military targets, but their targets have only been the people, places of worship, schools, hospitals and offices of media outlets, and in general ordinary people and human infrastructures, not military ones.

Committing international crimes, including war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, is a flagrant violation of all moral-human norms and international rules, and without a doubt, the perpetrators of the crimes and the supporters and the accomplices of the regime, will be held to account criminally.

The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the killing of more than 52,000 innocent people -mostly women and children-, the wounding over 100,000 people, and displacement of upwards of two million Palestinians in Gaza, the imposition of famine and starvation on the people, as well as repeated aggressive attacks on Lebanon and it also condemns the killing and displacement of the civilians of Lebanon in the strongest terms and underscores the need to immediately stop the Israeli regime's aggression and crimes against the people of the region.

The supporters of this occupying regime, most notably the US, have been complicit in its crimes against the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, and must be held accountable for providing arms and supporting the Zionist regime.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirms the Islamic Republic of Iran's principled policy of supporting the liberation and anti-occupation struggle of the Palestinian and Lebanese people and the policy of giving full support to the resistance against occupation and aggression. The Foreign Ministry reiterates the Islamic Republic's solidarity with the Palestinian cause until the liberation of the historical land of Palestine from the vicious occupiers and the realization of the rights of the Palestinian people, including the formation of an independent Palestinian state with the holy city of al-Quds as its capital.

The Islamic Republic of Iran invites all the Muslim and Arab countries of the region to understand the dangerous situation caused by the violent expansionist policy and belligerence of the occupying regime and underlines the need for Islamic and humane cooperation and unity to stop the evil acts and aggression of the Zionist regime.