ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday condemned the renewed Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip which have killed more than 400 and injured hundreds, warning that Israel aims to eventually reach Iraq.
He added, “Many have chosen to remain silent, merely watching as Gaza’s martyrs—its children and women—fall to Zionist-American terrorist missiles or perish from hunger and thirst due to a relentless international siege, devoid of any humanitarian or legal deterrent,” Sadr said in a statement.
He voiced his concern that Israel wants to eventually advance towards Iraq.
“All of this will ultimately lead to the sale of Palestine once again, allowing Zionism to expand effortlessly into Islamic and Arab lands—with assistance from various sides—so that Israel may reach the Iraqi borders it has long sought,” he said. “By then, regret will be of no use.”
The Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday that 429 Palestinians had been killed and 528 others injured since the beginning of the renewed Israeli operations, which marked a significant setback for the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi foreign ministry slammed the renewed Israeli operations in Gaza and urged the international community to act swiftly against the attacks. Baghdad also reiterated its “unwavering support” to the Palestinian people.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, announced on Tuesday that four of its government officials were killed in the latest round of violence, describing the Israeli attacks as a unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire.
The ceasefire went into effect in mid-January, following 15 months of war between the two sides which began after Hamas launched a large-scale incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,170 people, according to Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a massive offensive in Gaza, killing more than 46,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In a statement, Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and his extremist government” of “making a decision to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate,” referring to people captured in southern Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks.
Of the 251 people seized and taken into Gaza during the October 7 attacks, more than 130 hostages have been released. The Israeli military has recovered the bodies of at least 40 others. Fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.
