TEHRAN-A cartoon exhibition titled “Operation al-Aqsa Storm” kicked off at the Iranian House of Cartoon in Tehran on Monday.

On show there are 42 cartoons and caricatures by Iranian artists Mohammad Hossein Niroomand, Massoud Shojai Tabatabai, and Maziar Bijani about the continuous crimes of the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip, the Art Bureau website reported.

Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza for nearly three months has destroyed 70% of the homes in the besieged Palestinian enclave, according to the Government Media Office.

About 300,000 out of 439,000 homes have been destroyed in Israeli attacks. The 29,000 bombs dropped on the strip have targeted residential areas, Byzantine churches, hospitals, shopping malls, and all civilian infrastructure has been damaged to an extent that they cannot be repaired.

In nearly three months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol, or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the United States-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the ISIS group.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, also now sits among the deadliest in recent history, killing more than 21,500 people and wounding 55,000.

The Israeli army claims it has been targeting Hamas fighters, who carried out a deadly attack called Operation al-Aqsa Storm inside Israel on October 7. Some 1,200 people were killed in that attack which triggered the current phase of the conflict.

Hamas says its attack was in response to continued Israeli blockade of Gaza and expansion of settlement in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians see the Israeli settlements – which are considered illegal under international law – to be the biggest hurdle in the realization of their future state.

But experts have criticized Israel for bombing Gaza – which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world housing 2.3 million people on 365 sq km of land.

Media reports and rights groups say an overwhelming majority of those killed are civilians – more than 70% of them children, women, and elderly. More than 90% of the enclave’s population is now displaced, with aid groups warning of hunger and outbreaks of disease. Delivery of aid has been restricted by Israel, worsening the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. From blast fragments found on-site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are US-made.

The “Operation al-Aqsa Storm” cartoon exhibition will run until January 20 at the Iranian House of Cartoon located at No. 44, Golnabi St., Shariati St.

This is the second exhibition on this issue in Tehran since the beginning of the ongoing war in Gaza. The Latin America Cartoon and Caricature Exhibition was held for about two months at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA).

The cartoon and caricature exhibition, which concluded last week, showcased works by 400 artists from 15 countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

The artworks on display dealt with various subjects including Operation al-Aqsa Storm as well as anti-arrogance, anti-Zionist, racial discrimination, soft war, food scarcity, water crises, cultural invasion, and environmental issues.

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