Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressing attendees while accompanied on stage by President Masoud Pezeshkian (3rd-R), Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf (2nd-R), and Judiciary Chief Mohsen Ejeie (R), during a meeting with officials in Tehran.
Image: KHAMENEI.IR / AFP
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Gaza had brought Israel "to its knees", in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Iran's arch-enemy Israel and the Tehran-backed militant group Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of war.
"The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth, and fully supported by America, to its knees," Khamenei said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.
Also on Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, criticised US President Donald Trump's idea to move Palestinians out of Gaza to other locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
"Political coercion and demographic manipulations will not be able to force the Palestinians to migrate," Baqaei said in a post on X, adding that Gaza is the Palestinians' "homeland and they've paid (an) extremely high price to remain there".
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 87 of whom remain in Gaza, including dozens Israel says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 47,000 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
AFP