Iranian Cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami calls on Egyptian believers to force open Rafa crossing

Iranian cleric urges Egyptians to force open Rafah crossing

Gaza conflict is ‘savagery and infanticide’

 

 

TEHRAN – A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, called on the Egyptian people to pour into the streets and force the Cairo government to open the Rafah Crossing to help Palestinians caught up in the Israeli gunfire.

 

Security officials said more than 50,000 Egyptians demonstrated in Alexandria after prayers on Friday against Israel’s onslaught against Gaza people.

 

“I want them to come to the stage at any price and ask their officials to open the Rafah Crossing for saving the residents of Gaza,” Khatami said in his address to worshippers in Tehran.

 

He criticized the Egyptian government for refusing to open the border to Palestinians, saying, “I caution the Egyptian officials not to tie their fate to the (fate of) criminal and usurper Zionist regime.”

 

The cleric added it is “beneath the dignity” of the Egyptian leaders to say that they would open the crossing only with the allowance of the Zionist regime’s officials.

 

“Are you the servants of Israel and do what they say?” he asked Egyptian officials.

 

He also said the United States is an “accomplice” in the Gaza genocide.

 

According to Palestinian health officials, at least 785 people, many of them civilians, have been killed since the war began on December 27.

 

“Today, what is going on in Gaza is not war. It is savagery, infanticide and massacre of defenseless women.”

 

Medics have said almost a third of those killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive are children, with most killed since the start of a ground offensive after a week of aerial bombardment.

 

The cleric also took a harsh tone against the international organizations for their silence over the Gaza bloodshed.

 

“….in the past these international organizations repeatedly talked of human rights and democracy, but what has happened that these organization are silent and do not show any reaction to the crimes committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza!”

 

Khatami also accused some world leaders of showing hypocrisy in regard to the Gaza blitz. He said, for instance, when these officials visit Tel Aviv they defend Israel but when they visit Damascus they support Palestinians especially those living in the Gaza Strip.

 

——–EU failure

 

Ayatollah Khatami also criticized the European Union for failing to react properly to the Gaza conflict.

 

He said some of the European leaders remained “silent”, some others “supported” Israel, and some others acted “hypocritically”.

 

————–Arab complicity

 

Khatami said certain Arab countries have been supporting Israel instead of rushing to help Palestinians who are facing a serious humanitarian crisis.

 

“Unfortunately, certain reports received by us indicate that certain Arab countries are even paying the costs of the attack on Gaza.”

 

“A country which neighbors Gaza, instead of helping the injured, is spying for Israelis and tells them what to do at the current situation.”

 

UN spokeswoman Nancy Ronan said on Friday that Israel’s onslaught in the Gaza Strip has left most of the 1.5 million people living there in need of food, but lack of security is hampering efforts to distribute aid supplies.

 

“”The need on the ground is dire,”" she told AFP.