Germany’s biggest Islamic group slams Muslim ‘peace march’

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Sunday expressed deep concern over the military escalation in the Middle East and urged all parties involved to exercise restraint, the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned of "serious repercussions" on the region and its peoples from the dangers of a wider war, according to SPA.

Iran on Saturday launched drones and missiles against Israel, making good its threat to retaliate against the Israeli air strike that destroyed an Iranian embassy annex building in Damascus, Syria, killing at least 13 people, including two generals of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Saudi ministry "affirmed the Kingdom’s position calling for the need for the Security Council to assume its responsibility towards maintaining international peace and security, especially in this region that is extremely sensitive to global peace and security, and to prevent the escalation of the crisis that will have serious consequences if it expands," said the SPA report. 

Palestinian officials say around 80 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, as the Israeli regime continues its nearly six-month-old genocidal campaign against the besieged territory.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Sunday that nearly 32,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including 77 whose bodies were brought to hospitals over the last 24 hours.

It added that most of them were killed in fresh Israeli attacks on aid seekers near Gaza City.

An Israeli airstrike also hit a tent camp in the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in Central Gaza, killing two Palestinians and wounding another 15.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering in several tents in the yards of the medical complex for months, as the Israeli regime has escalated its deadly aggression on the blockaded territory.  

The ministry further underlined that during three weeks of siege on the al-Shifa hospital, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of civilians in and around the medical facility.

It also noted that some 100 Palestinians are still trapped inside the hospital under inhumane conditions while the occupying regime has destroyed over 1,000 nearby homes.

On March 18, heavily armed Israeli forces stormed the al-Shifa hospital using tanks and drones, firing at people inside the complex.

The deadly raid has been going on for three weeks now, with the occupation troops laying siege on the hospital and targeting those trying to flee.

Israel has been targeting hospitals in the strip since the beginning of its war on Gaza in early October last year, claiming Hamas uses them as command centers. Hamas officials have rejected such claims on several occasions.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, after Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli aggression has so far killed some 32,782 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded more than 75,092 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Tehran: Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has launched “extensive” retaliatory missile and drone strikes against the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s terrorist attack of April 1 against the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Corps announced launching the strikes in a statement on Saturday night, defining the mission as "Operation True Promise."

“In response to the Zionist regime’s numerous crimes, including the attack on the consular section of Iran’s Embassy in Damascus and the martyrdom of a number of our country’s commanders and military advisors in Syria, the IRGC’s Aerospace Division launched tens of missiles and drones against certain targets inside the occupied territories,” the statement read.

Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, meanwhile, warned that “Whatever country that could open its soil or airspace to Israel for a [potential] attack on Iran, will receive our decisive response.”

The Israeli attack had resulted in the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, and five of their accompanying officers.

The terrorist attack drew sharp condemnation from senior Iranian political and military leaders, who vowed "definitive revenge."

During a speech in Tehran on Wednesday after leading the Eid al-Fitr prayers, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Israeli regime “must be punished and will be punished” for the deadly strike on the Iranian diplomatic premises.

The Leader added, “The evil Zionist regime committed another mistake ...  and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The consulate and diplomatic missions in any country are considered to be the territory of that country. When they attack our consulate, it means they have attacked our soil."

In a subsequent statement, the IRGC said the retaliation came after 10 days of "silence and neglect" on the part of the international organizations, especially the United Nations Security Council, to condemn the Israeli aggression or punish the regime in line with Article 7 of the UN Charter.

Iran then resorted to the retaliatory strikes, the Corps added, "using its strategic intelligence capabilities, missiles, and drones" to attack "targets of the Zionist terrorist army in the occupied territories, successfully hitting and destroying them."

The statement, meanwhile, warned the United States -- the Israeli regime's biggest supporter -- that "any support or participation in harming Iran's interests will result in a decisive and regrettable response by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic."

"Furthermore, America is held responsible for the evil actions of the Zionist regime, and if this child-killing regime is not restrained in the region, it will bear the consequences," it noted.

The Corps concluded the statement by cautioning third countries against letting their soil or airspace be used for attacks against the Islamic Republic.