IRGC Condemns Massacre of Palestinians by Israeli Regime in Gaza

“The IRGC as the powerful hand of the Iranian nation has done everything to help the Palestinian people and it will activate more available capacities to take back the rights of dear Palestinians,” part of the IRGC’s statement read.

The IRGC condemned the massacre of the Palestinians taking part in the Return Rally, and said, “The efforts by the US and its European and regional allies to maintain the security of the fake and child-killing Zionist regime are doomed to failure.”

“The new crime by the occupying and racist Zionist regime in killing and injuring 1,400 of Palestinians in the peaceful and massive rally of Return in Gaza which took place in the aftermath of the support rendered by the US and its European and regional allies (to the Israeli regime) once again showed that the Zionists have been deeply terrified by the start of a new Intifada and the potentials of Palestine’s Islamic resistance,” part the IRGC’s statement said.

It said the recent savage crimes by the Zionist regime in Gaza Strip indicate that the heinous deal by traitor leaders of some reactionary and stooge Arab countries who keep covert relationship with the Holy Quds Occupiers is doomed to failure right in the beginning and will lead to nowhere despite relentless, covert and overt supports by the US leaders and that country’s unwise president; its only product will be culminating the popular movement and Islamic resistance of the Palestinians as well as accelerating drying up of Israel’s cancerous gland in the region.

The IRGC said that the international community and real advocates of human rights are presently exposed to a new historical test.

It further reiterated the need for the global community to take resolute and immediate measures to condemn the Zionists’ crimes and make practical efforts to retrieve the Palestinians’ rights.

“Today the oppressed and defenseless Palestinian people beyond conventional and diplomatic condemnations need pragmatic measures to support them and put an end to the occupation and crimes by the Zionists in their lands,” the statement said.

The IRGC underlined that the dream of stabilizing and securing Israel will not come true, and said, “It goes without saying that the Islamic Ummah with the collapse of Daesh (the ISIL), considers the final defeat of the Takfiri terrorists in the region as a prelude to paying more attention to the issue of Palestine, and Palestinians through their recent move showed to the world people that they themselves are pioneers on this path.

Dubbed “The Great March of Return,” Friday’s rallies in Gaza coincided with the 42nd anniversary of Land Day, which commemorates the murder of six Palestinians by Israeli forces in 1976.

The Return rallies will culminate on 15 May that marks Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe) on which Israel was created.

According to the figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, 16 Palestinians were killed and over 1,400 others wounded on Friday after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at Palestinian protesters marking Land Day and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified border fence.

Ahead of the protest, the Israeli military had deployed tanks and 100 snipers with the authority to use live rounds on the Gaza border.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said he expected “the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility” regarding a “heinous massacre” of peaceful Gaza demonstrators by Israeli forces and “defuse this volatile situation, which clearly constitutes a threat to international peace and security.”

Meanwhile, assistant UN secretary general for political affairs, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, urged maximum restraint amid “fear that the situation might deteriorate in the coming days.”

“Israel must uphold its responsibilities under international human rights and humanitarian law. Lethal force should only be used as a last resort with any resulting fatalities properly investigated by the authorities,” he added.

Additionally on Friday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged “an independent and transparent investigation” into the Gaza clashes and reaffirmed the world body’s “readiness” to support the so-called peace process.

Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for Guterres, quoted the UN chief as saying that the Gaza “tragedy underlines the urgency of revitalizing the peace process aiming at creating the conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations for a peaceful solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli representative at the UN, however, did not take part in Friday’s Security Council meeting.