In a meeting with a group of commanders and personnel of the Iranian Air Force and Army’s Air Defense Force in Tehran on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei said the elites of the Muslim world shoulder a heavy responsibility vis-à-vis the ongoing developments in the besieged enclave and should create a public demand to cut relations with Israel.
Israel has been carrying out heavy bombardment across the Gaza Strip since early October, killing more than 27,300 Palestinians, including thousands of children and women, and wounding over 66,000 others, and levelling entire neighbourhoods. Thousands more are missing and feared buried under the rubble.
Tel Aviv has also imposed a "complete siege" on Gaza, cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water supplies. The move has plunged the blockaded territory into a humanitarian crisis.
Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that all countries must cut their commercial and political ties with Israel in an attempt to compel Tel Aviv to end its atrocities in the blockaded territory. They also called for the trial of Israeli officials at the international courts over act of war crime and genocide in Gaza, imposing an oil sanction on Tel Aviv as well as expelling the Zionist regime’s ambassadors.