TEHRAN - Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, the vice president for parliamentary affairs, said on Friday that the blood of the innocent children in Gaza has “awakened the human conscience and made people realize the reality of the Zionist regime and its supporters." 

The Israeli regime, caught off guard by the Hamas operation on October 7, unleashed a relentless war on the coastal strip committing war crimes by bombarding residential areas, hospitals, schools, churches and mosques. It also cut off water, food, medicine, fuel and other essential things to 2.3 million Gazans.

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip “amounts to a war crime”.

“Pioneers in the battle fronts”

Speaking at a congress of 14000 martyrs, Hosseini also praised the self-sacrifice of the working community during the Sacred Defense in the 1980s, calling the martyrs of the working community “pioneers in the battle fronts, who alertly took steps in this path (path of martyrdom).” 

Iran’s resistance against the invading army of Saddam Hussein in September 1980, which lasted until the summer of 1988, is called Sacred Defense. Volunteer forces, known as Basij, played an important role in halting the invasion and forcing Saddam’s army to retreat. 

Hosseini also emphasized the importance of work in Islam and how the Prophets of Islam and Imams valued work and workers. 

The vice president also said that during the Sacred Defense, the working community was a manifestation of self-sacrifice by both fighting in the battle and working. 

Hosseini praises two leading martyrs 

The vice president also pointed to the record of Lt. Gen. Qassem, saying he was raised in a pious family in Qanat-e Malek, Kerman Province. 

Gen. Soleimani was a commander in Iraq’s imposed war on Iran in the 1980s. Some years after the end of the war, he was promoted to the rank of the IRGC Quds commander. He acted as a legendary commander in the war against terrorist groups, particularly Daesh (ISIS) in the 2010s. Envious of his iconic military achievements against terrorists, the U.S. assassinated him in a terrorist drone attack in January 2020 near Baghdad’s international airport. 

Hosseini, who served as culture minister in the Ahmadinejad administration, said Gen. Soleimani, despite going through many hardships, joined the IRGC after the victory of the Islamic revolution and quickly reached stages of commandership and excellence due to his talent, faith, sincerity, piety, humility, and courage. 
 
He also described martyr Abdol Hossein Bronsi as a worker who was good at understanding political struggle by quoting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's statement that martyr Bronsi and men like him should be considered as “symbols of truth”.

“In his will, this distinguished martyr advises the young people to read the Quran and seek help from this book,” the vice president for parliamentary affairs said.