News - Middle East: Iran's President Ebrahim Raeisi has criticized the silence of the world's leaders in the face of the Israeli regime’s horrendous crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling for efforts to end bombardment of the territory.

Raeisi made the remarks in a Saturday phone call with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, during which the two sides discussed bilateral relations and the latest developments related to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We believe that the silence and inaction of the world's leaders and officials only embolden child-killing Zionist rulers [of Israel]," the Iranian president said.

He added that various countries, including Japan, must make diplomatic endeavors in pursuit of four important priorities, which include "putting and end to Israel's bombardment of Gaza, sending humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, lifting the siege of the territory, and restoring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people."

The Israeli regime launched its brutal war on Gaza on October 7 following a surprise operation by the territory's resistance movements.

More than 15,200 people have so far been killed in Gaza with over 40,000 people wounded. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 70 percent of victims of Israeli strikes on the blockaded territory are women and children.

Thousands more are missing and feared buried under the rubble.

On Friday, the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, sounded a strong alarm about the toll being exacted on children in Gaza as a result of the war, which it called a "war on children."

'US main sponsor of Israeli war machine'

Elsewhere in his remarks, Raeisi pointed to the United States' all-out backing for Israel's military onslaught, calling Washington "the main sponsor and supporter of the Israeli regime's war machine."

The US, Israel's biggest and oldest ally, has provided the regime with thousands of arms consignments since the war on Gaza started. Washington, which has backed Tel Aviv's ferocious attacks as a means of "self-defense," has been also casting its veto against the UN Security Council resolutions that called on the occupying regime to cease its aggression.

"With direct support from the US and by trampling on more than 400 international resolutions, the Zionist regime has dropped the equivalent of seven Hiroshima atom bombs on the people of Gaza since the beginning of the war on Gaza," Raeisi said.

“At the same time, the United States brazenly calls on other countries to show self-restraint in the face of such crimes, so that, the fake Zionist regime would be able to continue its crimes and genocide with ease of mind,” Iran's president said.

Raeisi urged Japan and other countries to hold referendums "to objectively witness the extent of their people’s support for the Palestinian nation, though the Western countries are very afraid of such a referendum.”

The Japanese prime minister, for his part, lauded Raeisi’s positions on the ongoing developments in Gaza, while expressing concern about the continuation of humanitarian crisis in the territory.

He also stressed the need for putting an end to attacks on civilians and sending humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Source: Press TV