Millions of Iranians have held rallies across the country in condemnation of
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip against Palestinians.
Demonstrators chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" in the capital
Tehran and carried banners, denouncing Israel's atrocities in the Gaza Strip run
by the democratically-elected Palestinian government of Hamas.
The Islamic movement does not recognize Israel as a legitimate state.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani
also joined ralliers in Tehran on Friday.
President Ahmadinejad, speaking with reporters, strongly condemned Israel's
blockade of Gaza, saying Tel Aviv is increasing pressure on Palestinians to
hinder their upcoming election.
Incumbent Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas' four-year term expires on
January 9. However, it is unclear when the elections will be held.
A recent Israeli National Security Council assessment has urged Tel Aviv to
hinder "elections in the Palestinian Authority, even at the cost of a
confrontation with the US and the international community."
At the end of theThursday rallies, a statement was issued in strong condemnation
of international silence on Israel's siege of the region as well as the attacks
in the West bank city of al-Khalil.
The Gaza Strip is facing a humanitarian crisis as Israel has imposed an economic
blockade on the coastal area, turning it to an 'open prison' and putting lives
of almost 1.5 million residents at stake.
The siege has resulted in the shortage of fuel for the strip's only power plant,
which could lead to a complete blackout.
The residents are also suffering from the shortage of basic supplies including
food and medicine.
Hundreds of right-wing Jewish hardliners have been attacking and hurling rocks
at Palestinians and vandalizing their homes in al-Khalil since November.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has urged Israel to end Palestinians'
suffering.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah has also criticized the international
community for keeping silent, calling for an end to 'Israel's crimes' committed
against people in the coastal region.
A senior Iranian official says Egyptian support for Israel makes Cairo
accountable for any crime committed in the Gaza Strip.
"Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing and tightened the siege (of Gaza)," said
Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts, at
Tehran's Friday prayers.
Tel Aviv placed the Gaza Strip under a blockade after the democratically-elected
Palestinian government of Hamas took control of the coastal area in mid-June
2007.
The UN Human Rights Council declared on Tuesday that Israeli policies against
the Palestinians and the blockade of the Gaza Strip as "crime(s) against
humanity."
In response to the UN report, Israeli ambassador in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar
said Tel Aviv "remains committed to reinforcing areas in which we are succeeding
and bettering those areas that need improvement."
According to UN human rights rapporteur Richard Falk, however, Tel Aviv was
responding to what he described as low-level criticism by "normally cautious UN
officials". Falk suggested Israeli crimes to be worthy of an International
Criminal Court investigation.
Despite its objection, Israel was forced to permit deliveries of humanitarian
aid and gas to Gaza on Tuesday after days of full closure of all Gaza crossings.
On Friday, Ayatollah Khatami said "certain Arab leaders" should also be
investigated by international courts for aiding and abetting Tel Aviv in its
crimes.
"Certain Arab leaders should be tried as 'betrayers' for all Israeli crimes in
the occupied lands and the Gaza Strip," the Iranian cleric continued.
Records show that since the imposition of the blockade, 260 patients have died,
75 percent of Palestinian kids are suffering from malnutrition, and 40 percent
of ambulances have stopped working due to the lack of gas, Khatami added.
The Hamas movement has urged the international community to force Israel to lift
the siege after the release of the UN Human Rights report.
"If the UN says that the tight siege on the Gaza Strip is a war crime, we wonder
why Arab leaders do not demand the reopening of the Rafah crossing," said
Barhoum.
The Rafah crossing connects Egypt to the Gaza Strip inhabited by some 1.5
million Palestinians.
