Iran Blasts US for Assisting Israel in Commiting Crimes against Children

"We (Iran) urge the international community not to allow the rights of the Palestinians to be violated as a result of the bullying by the US and Israel's crimes," Khoshrou said on Thursday, addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the latest status of the Palestinians.

He underlined that the situation in Palestine is deteriorating, and said, "Only during the March of Return protests in Gaza, more than 200 have been martyred and 22,000 others injured as a result of Israeli violence."

"The Israeli regime kills them because they are Palestinians; because it considers them not to be entitled to any rights, not even the right to live," Khoshrou added.

He reiterated that what the Palestinian protesters want is to return to their ancestral land and to form an independent Palestinian state.

"This is the consequence of 70 years of oppression against the Palestinians, which has continued as a result of US support and the indifference of the Security Council," Iran's envoy to the UN said.

On Thursday, the Israeli military ramped up its armored forces around the Gaza Strip in order to curb weekly protests along a fence separating occupied territories from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Media reports said some 60 tanks and armored personnel carriers were being deployed along the Gaza fence in anticipation of new demonstrations on Friday.

Witnesses said that the reinforcements were clearly visible from main Israeli roads near the Gaza Strip.

The latest deployment is considered as the largest seen there since the 2014 Israeli offensive on the coastal sliver of land, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead.

The decision was taken after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday and pledged to take "very strong action" if Palestinian "attacks" continued.

The remarks came after the Israeli army said that a rocket fired from Gaza had hit the city of Beersheba in the Negev Desert and a second had landed in the sea.

The Tel Aviv regime carries out regular attacks on the blockaded coastal enclave under the pretext of hitting positions belonging to Hamas, the movement which runs the Palestinian territory.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008. It has also witnessed a fresh wave of tensions since March 30, which marked the start of “The Great March of Return” protests.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed and some 21,500 others wounded in renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says she is “alarmed” by the violence in Gaza.

Tensions continue in the occupied Palestinian territories in the wake of US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s so-called capital.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the Security Council in June that he was “shocked” by Israeli troops’ use of live fire against Gazans.

The escalation of violence in Gaza is “a warning to all how close to the brink of war the situation is,” Guterres pointed out at the time.

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