By Nasser Kan'ani, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman

270 days of war and crime against Gaza

July 2, 2024 - 21:37

TEHRAN - Two hundred and seventy days have passed since the start of the military operation and the horrible crimes of the Zionists in the Gaza Strip. This terrible tragedy has set unprecedented records in terms of the volume and depth of brutality committed in contemporary history. 

In this unequal war, hospitals and medical facilities were bombed several times and occupied following Israel’s military raids. Medical staff were also arrested and tortured by the forces of the terrorist army of the Israeli regime. 

During these brutal attacks, more than 150 hospitals and medical sites were targeted, 31 hospitals went out of service, 300 medical personnel were detained and more than 500 people who worked in the medical sector in Gaza were martyred by the Zionist regime’s forces. 

Bedridden patients in Gaza hospitals were either kidnapped or martyred by the occupying military forces. The peak of this brutality could be seen in the raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where after the withdrawal occupation forces, the bodies of the sick and wounded were retrieved from the ruins. 

So far, seven mass graves have been discovered in the surroundings of al-Shifa Hospital and the bodies of more than 500 martyrs have been retrieved. They had been brutally killed while they were blindfolded and their hands were tied. 

Young children and infants, along with their mothers, were directly targeted by snipers of the invading Zionist army.

On average, five children have died every hour and 17,000 kids have lost one of their parents and live with only one of their parents or guardians. 

The indescribable aggression of the Zionists has led to the disappearance of nearly 10,000 civilians and defenseless people in Gaza and the displacement of more than 1.5 million residents of the territory.  

The number of children killed by the war machine of the Zionists in the Gaza Strip in the last nine months exceeds the number of victims of wars that have occurred in the world in the last four years and has reached an unbelievable number of 15,200.

From the total number of children martyred in the brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip, more than 14,000 were aged 4 to 13, 180 were three, more than 450 were under three, and 140 were in the first year of their infancy. 

In these brutal strikes, not only houses and residential areas and camps, but also tents of the refugees were extensively bombed. On aggregate, more than 75,000 tons of bombs, including white phosphorous bombs, were dropped on the defenseless people in Gaza which surpassed the amounts of combined bombs used in the Second World War.  

In these blind and inhumane bombings, more than 10,000 Palestinian women, who are defined as innocent civilians, according to all legal rules and regulations governing military battles, have been martyred.

Schools, universities, educational centers, churches, libraries, museums and mosques have been hit and stormed as war targets.  During the attacks of the invading Zionist regime, 311 schools and universities were attacked. As a result of these strikes, more than 8,600 students and nearly 500 teaching staff and teachers have been martyred.

More than 300 mosques, 200 historical places and 3 churches have been completely destroyed. As Israel imposed a total siege on the coastal strip, water, food and medicine were denied to the Muslim and fasting people during the holy month of Ramadan.  The Zionist aggressors used starvation, thirst, and preventing delivery of medicine to the sick as weapons of war.

More than 31 Palestinian children have succumbed to starvation due to the continuation of this inhuman act.

Also, more than 10,000 cancer patients are on the verge of death, hundreds of thousands of people have contracted infectious diseases, and more than 60,000 pregnant women are at risk of losing their lives or their children.  

The convoys carrying food such as those belonging to the World Central Kitchen were attacked.  Some of the employees of the non-profit organization were citizens of European countries who had voluntarily joined the convoys to help Palestinian people. 

In the course of these measures, dozens of people affiliated with popular organizations have been killed. Besides, settlers of the occupied areas have set fire to and looted the trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including food, from the Rafah crossing towards Gaza under the support of the Zionist invading army and in front of the eyes of the international institutions. 

They (Israeli forces) have stripped elderly civilian men naked in front of their families after arresting them in order to humiliate them and take revenge on the fighters present in the unequal battlefield of Gaza.

By ignoring all international rules and regulations and with the aim of preventing the publication of news pertaining to the scale of the crimes committed in the Gaza strip, journalists have been defined as military targets and so far more than 150 of them have been killed as a result of direct and targeted attacks. 

Despite all these indescribable and innumerable crimes, the unequal and bloody war in Gaza has another side which in practice has highlighted the misery of the Zionist regime and shed light on the fact that the regime is like a house of cards. 

After 270 days of bombing, committing all kinds of war crimes, and an unprecedented destruction of infrastructure and public and private places, the invading army, which was under the illusion of "victory on all fronts", failed to achieve superiority and meet its military and political goals against a resistance movement, which has been under siege and sanctions. 

Inside the United States, which is the biggest supporter and partner of the Zionist regime in committing crimes, people are protesting against the atrocities of the Zionists and American statesmen. 

More than 50 universities in the United States and some important European countries have seen strong student protests and faculty sit-ins against the brutal actions of the Zionists. Presently, the name of Palestine and Gaza is more frequent for students and academics in the US and big European countries compared with the names of elite politicians in those countries.  

The official recognition of the Palestinian state by many countries, including some European countries has gained momentum, and some governments have reconsidered relations with this child-killing regime independently or under the pressure of public opinion and their political elites.

"Human dignity" has been put to test in a scale as big as the world and the entire human society, and the ragged and pitiful mask has fallen from the face of the self-proclaimed defenders of human rights and now their dishonesty has been clear to all.

Two hundred and seventy days of cowardly war, along with the most heinous and hateful inhuman actions of the Zionists towards women, children, the elderly, and the sick in Gaza, is a lasting indicator to judge the level of honor of the so-called human rights advocates. 

The unequal war in Gaza exposed the true colors of the so-called human rights advocates in the West and revealed their dirty and blood-soaked hands more than ever.

Undoubtedly, the end of this black era which is full of crimes, will lead to the complete collapse of a regime that, from the beginning of its formation until now, has based its bogus and illegitimate identity on aggression, assassination, mass murder, resorting to all kinds of violence and attempting to commit genocide against defenseless and innocent people and the real owners of the Palestinian land.

The countdown to the complete downfall of the Zionist regime is accelerating and its realization is a matter of time.

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