Tehran’s most senior diplomat has warned the US and Israel that “at any moment” the Middle East “will go out of control” unless Tel Avivi stops attacking Gaza.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned a joint press conference in Tehran that the Middle East is a powder keg and a tiny “miscalculation” could result in a “heavy and bitter consequences for the interests of the warmongers,” in a warning to Washington and Tel Aviv.
Amir-Abdollahian said, “I warn the US and its proxy (Israel) … that if they do not immediately stop the crime against humanity and genocide in Gaza, anything is possible at any moment and the region will go out of control.”
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Gaza’s Health Ministry has said that to date at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed amid Israeli airstrikes since 7 October when Hamas terrorists brutally killed around 1,400 Israeli civilians.
The Ministry said that 2,055 children have been killed and over the last 24 hours, 436 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli strikes and on Monday they said 15,273 have been wounded and most of the fatalities happened in southern Gaza where Israel said they would be safe.
On Monday Israeli soldiers entered the Gaza Strip by land and fought with the Palestinian militant terrorist organisation Hamas in raids.
Israel’s chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing that soldiers conducted “deep” incursions into Gaza.
Hagari said, “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the next stage in the war.
“These raids also locate and search for anything we can get in terms of intelligence on the missing and the hostages.”
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus told Australian ABC radio that the planned full-on offensive in Gaza will happen unless Hamas releases all the hostages, which is believed to be around 200.
Conricus was asked by reporters is the ground invasion is “inevitable,” he said, “The aim here is to totally dismantle Hamas from its military capabilities.
“If that can be done from the air and with stand-off measures, with very limited exposure to our troops and less damage on the ground, that would be great.”
The IDF spokesman added, “If Hamas were to come out of their hiding places that they hide underneath the Israeli civilians, which is what they’re doing now, return our hostages — all 212 of them — and surrender unconditionally, then the war would end.
“If they won’t, we will probably have to go in and get it done.”
He said, “The end state of this war is a dismantled Hamas that will never ever have the ability to threaten any Israeli civilians and of course to not perpetrate the type of monstrous attacks that they did on 7 October. That is our aim.”
The Times of Israel reported that the IDF had hit 320 Hamas targets and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) over the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip.
