Top Iraqi Muslim cleric warns of Middle East escalation
- Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday’s strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians killed 93 people
Iraq’s top Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani warned on Saturday of the risk of a regional escalation with potentially “catastrophic consequences” following the killing of two Iran-backed militant leaders.
“Once again, the Israeli occupation army has committed a huge massacre … adding to its series of ongoing crimes” in Gaza, Sistani said in a rare statement since the start of the 10-month-old war.
The recent high-profile killings of two leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah increased the danger of “major clashes” that could have “catastrophic consequences” for the region, he warned.
“We once again call on the world to stand against this terrible brutality,” Sistani said, urging Muslims “to unite in order to press for an end to the genocidal war” in Gaza.
On July 31, Palestinian militant group Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack, blamed on Israel, in the Iranian capital.
