Iran Says Israel’s Gaza Occupation Plot Meant to Complete Genocide of Palestinians

In a statement released on Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the new Israeli plan for Gaza breaches international law.

“This decision constitutes a grave violation of international law and a deliberate attempt to expand occupation and impose new realities across the occupied Palestinian territories by force and military aggression. Undoubtedly, the renewed displacement of Palestinians is categorically condemned,” it added.

Nearly two years into Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli security cabinet voted on Friday for the occupation plan, which means more bloodshed in Gaza and forcible displacement of exhausted and starving Palestinians.

It was initiated and pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the brutal Gaza onslaught that has killed at least 61,369 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 152,850 others since October 2023.

The Hamas resistance group called Israel’s expansionist plan a “war crime,” stressing that Palestinians would “resist any occupation or aggressive force.”

It also warned that Netanyahu is “sacrificing” Israeli captives to “serve his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda.”

Additionally, in its statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Israel's continued massacres and acts of genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, as well as the regime’s assaults on Islamic holy sites in the city of al-Quds.

It also underlined the need for an immediate cessation of Israeli attacks on Gaza, the unconditional delivery of humanitarian aid to the blockaded Palestinian territory, guaranteed freedom of action for relief organizations in carrying out humanitarian missions, support for regional and international efforts to achieve a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupying forces, a prisoners exchange, and the implementation of reconstruction plans.

It further noted that the international community bears responsibility to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza and provide immediate assistance to the oppressed Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the ministry held Israel responsible for “heinous crimes and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophes” in Gaza, given the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrants for the regime’s officials, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s ruling that obliges Tel Aviv to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

“The international community, particularly the UN Security Council and other international legal and human rights bodies, are expected to fulfill their legal and moral obligations, to pave the way for prosecuting and punishing the Zionist criminals, and to end the regime’s long-standing impunity,” it said.

The ministry emphasized that the realization of the rights of the Palestinian people, most notably their fundamental right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and unified Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital, is both a legal and moral necessity.

It further reiterated the Islamic Republic's support for the Palestinian people’s right to complete liberation from occupation, apartheid, and colonialism, highlighting Tehran’s initiative for a referendum among the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, including Muslims, Christians, and Jews, to determine their fate and the ruling political system.