TEHRAN - The Iranian Army’s chief commander on Monday praised Palestinian resistance to Israel’s cruel onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the conviction of individuals guilty of atrocities against Palestinians is the “minimal price” that Israelis and Americans must pay.

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi also commended the al-Aqsa Storm, the greatest military assault by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group against the occupied territories in decades. 

In the operation on October 7, Hamas took about 240 Israelis, including military personnel, as captives.

“Operation al-Aqsa Storm and the resistance of the people of Gaza against the unheard-of oppression and crimes of the illegitimate and usurping Zionist regime as well as their disgraceful and dishonorable master unmasked the so-called human rights advocates,” Mousavi said in an event in Tehran.

“Gaza is a city of resistance and a symbol of steadfastness,” he added. “Operation al-Aqsa Storm, as Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said, is an ‘irreparable defeat’ since the heroic Palestinian fighters carried out an offensive against Israel after nearly 75 years.”

Israel resumed its genocidal campaign against Gazans on Friday after a one-week truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt in which the two sides exchanged civilian prisoners.

Just in 24 hours between Sunday and Monday (Dec.3-4) Israel killed 700 Palestinians in Gaza.

The Army chief said the U.S. has been actively in charge of directing and managing the Israeli genocide in the besieged territory.

According to Mousavi, regardless of how the current conflict plays out, the Palestinian people will ultimately triumph, even while the U.S. and Israel continue to perpetrate atrocities and add to their “black record” despite international vitriol and opprobrium. 

“The supporters of Zionists must... return the occupied territories to their main owners. Of course, in doing so, putting criminals on trial is the minimum price that the criminal Americans and Zionists have to pay,” the commander stated, underscoring the Israeli regime’s decline and imminent doom.

Israel began the war in Gaza on October 7, after the Hamas resistance group launched the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying regime in reaction to the decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

On November 27, Major General Mousavi said the Israeli regime has failed to make any strategic achievement during its war on the besieged Gaza Strip. “This operation had very important results and proved the accuracy of the Leader’s prediction that the Zionist regime will not see the next 25 years.”

The Army chief continued, “The signs for the decline of the Zionist regime have become clear.”

Israel’s “indiscriminate bombardment” of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza has reached “new depths”, the Norwegian Refugee Council chief warns. At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.

Since the onset of the Gaza conflict, the United States has been Israel’s most important companion, supporting it with thousands of weaponry consignments. Washington, which has backed Tel Aviv’s brutal strikes as a sort of “self-defense,” has also vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling on the Israeli regime to stop its violence.