Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has strongly condemned Israel’s aid distribution mechanism in Gaza, calling it a “cheap form of genocide.”
Israel had presented Palestinians in Gaza with a grim choice – “either perish under the rubble of hunger, or get shot trying to obtain a food package,” Khamenei said in a post on X.
“This is a cheap form of genocide, calculated with Western precision. A nation that once died under bombs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars now dies in food lines from bullets that cost mere dollars,” he said.
A second Palestinian source accused the Israeli delegation of lacking authority and deliberately delaying the agreement to prolong what they called a “war of extermination.”
The Gaza conflict began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli data. Out of 251 hostages taken, 49 remain captive, with the Israeli military reporting that 27 of them have died.
Facing mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that any meaningful ceasefire talks would only be possible once Hamas is neutralised as a security threat.
He emphasised that this would require the group to disarm, warning that if Hamas does not lay down its weapons voluntarily, Israel will be forced to disarm them by military means, AFP reported.
Since the war started, at least 57,882 Palestinians, also primarily civilians, have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
The U.N. human rights office reported on Friday that at least 798 people have been killed over the past six weeks at aid distribution points in Gaza operated by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), as well as near convoys run by other humanitarian organisations, Reuters reported.
The GHF relies on private U.S. security and logistics firms to deliver aid into Gaza, largely circumventing the U.N.-coordinated system that Israel claims has been exploited by Hamas-led militants to steal supplies meant for civilians, an allegation Hamas denies, Reuters reported.
(With inputs from agencies)