UN must take action to prevent Israel's mass atrocities against Palestinians in Rafah: Iran FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says the United Nations must take action to prevent further mass atrocities by the Israeli regime in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Amir-Abdollahian warned against the "devastating" outcomes of Israel's plan to carry out a full-fledged ground invasion of Rafah.

He said an all-out offensive on Rafah would be devastating for the 1.5 million Palestinian people, most of them displaced, who have already been squeezed into the city and are on the edge of survival.

He urged the international community not to let such carnage happen and cautioned that any military offensive on Rafah would undoubtedly be another phase in the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.

"It is imperative that the United Nations system fulfill its responsibilities in this critical juncture and avert further mass atrocities against the Palestinians who have taken refuge in Rafah," the top Iranian diplomat emphasized.

Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli war surpasses 29,000: Health ministry

The Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death toll resulting from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Strip has surpassed 29,000

He highlighted the need for the UN and the international community to act united in urging for an instant and permanent cessation of atrocities against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

They must also put an immediate end to the forced displacement of the Palestinian people and call for their unhindered access to humanitarian aid, the top Iranian diplomat said.

He added that all countries are "legally and morally duty-bound" to stop and prevent Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people. 

Amir-Abdollahian emphasized that the United Nations needs to urge all its member states to refrain from collaborating with the Israeli occupying aggressor regime.

Any cooperation of the countries with Israel would constitute their complicity in the perpetration of "the most serious crimes of international concern and would entail their international responsibility," he pointed out.

He lamented that a high number of innocent people have been killed and wounded during the past four months of Israel's incessant attacks on Gaza.

This is visible evidence of a "premeditated plot" to exterminate a whole nation, including through its forced expulsion out of occupied Palestine, the minister said.

He noted that close to 30,000 Palestinians, most of them young children and women, have been brutally killed and more than 60,000 wounded in Israel's ongoing war that started in October, while 7,000 others remain buried under the collapsed buildings.

According to the Iranian foreign minister, the Israeli’s genocidal vengeance has not spared anyone living in the occupied Palestine as over 85 journalists and more than 135 UNRWA aid workers are also brutally targeted. 

Amir-Abdollahian slammed Israel's move to combine its indiscriminate military operation with cruel starvation campaign by deliberately depriving Gazans of food, water, humanitarian aid and other essential resources.

"This can hardly be characterized as anything other than genocide," he said.

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