TEHRAN - The airstrikes by the Zionist regime, which left at least 13 Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip, were heavily condemned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

More than 40 Israeli warplanes carried out attacks for nearly two hours starting at 2: am on Tuesday (23:00 GMT Monday), Al Jazeera reported.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said the attacks were carried out in advance of the Al-Nakba (Catastrophe) Day anniversary and were intended to draw attention away from the Israeli regime’s critical and unstable domestic situation.

The Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths and injuries of numerous civilians, including women and children, as well as the martyrdom of three leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Such strikes reveal the aggressive Zionist regime’s frustration and weakness in the face of the heroic resistance by young Palestinians in the West Bank and al-Quds, Kanaani said.

A major factor that has emboldened the apartheid Israeli regime to continue its crimes, according to Kanaani, is the silence and inaction of Western nations and international organizations in the face of the Zionist regime’s increasing atrocities against the Palestinians in recent months.

He said that such a silence would go down in history as a “dark and shameful” conduct by those who claimed to be human rights aficionados.  

Finally, the Iranian official said it is necessary that Islamic nations take prompt, effective, deterrent, and coordinated measures to halt the Zionist regime’s criminal and killing machine.

Days after a ferocious escalation of hostilities put the embattled coastal enclave on edge, Israeli warplanes initiated a series of targeted attacks on the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday.

Based on the Palestinian reports, the attacks targeted a variety of areas in Gaza City, Rafah, and Khan Yunis, among other places, and at least 13 Palestinians were killed and 20 others were injured.

According to a statement from the Zionist regime’s military, the Islamic Jihad resistance commanders in the strikes include Khalil Bahitini, the commander of the al-Quds Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip; Tareq Ezzaldin, a spokesperson for the movement who also manages retaliatory operations in the West Bank and Gaza; and Jihad Ghanem, secretary of the movement’s military council.