Iran has called on the UN to adopt a serious and immediate action to stop Israel's ongoing crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza."The hateful crimes and atrocities of the Zionist regime (Israel) against Palestinians particularly in the Gaza Strip have incurred deep wrath of the international community," Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the Security Council.
Tel Aviv placed the Gaza Strip under a blockade after the democratically-elected Palestinian government, Hamas, took control of the coastal area in mid-June 2007. Palestinians voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Islamic movement in the 2006 parliamentary elections.
The Islamic movement does not recognize Israel as a legitimate state.
The Israeli siege has inflicted a humanitarian crisis in the already impoverished Strip, turning it to an 'open prison' and putting lives of almost 1.5 million residents at stake. Israel had not allowed deliveries of humanitarian aid and gas to the Gaza Strip for days before Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council declared Israeli policies against the Palestinians and the blockade of the Gaza Strip to be "crime(s) against humanity."
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah has also criticized the international community for keeping silent over the Israeli crimes, calling for an end to atrocities committed against people in the coastal region.
Following the UN report, Hamas also urged Egypt to reopen its border with the Gaza Strip.
"After the UN report that the siege imposed on Gaza is a war crime, it is unjustified to keep the Rafah border crossing with Gaza closed down," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.
Khazaee went on to say that the UN and its Security Council have turned a deaf ear to calls from oppressed people in Gaza to stop Israeli crimes against them. "It is regretful that the world witnesses actions of a criminal regime which safely committs the most terrifying crimes of the history against innocent people."
The Iranian diplomat warned that inattention of the UN and the Security Council to Israel's criminal acts would deteriorate the situation.
Experts say Israel is increasing pressure on Palestinians to hinder their upcoming election. Incumbent Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas' four-year term expires on January 9.
A recent Israeli National Security Council assessment has urged Tel Aviv to hinder "elections in the Palestinian Authority, even at the cost of a confrontation with the U.S. and the international community."
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