
TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Gaza had brought Israel "to its knees", in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Iran's arch-enemy Israel and the Tehran-backed militant group Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of the "genocidal" war on Gaza.
"The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth, and fully supported by America, to its knees," Khamenei said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.
Also on Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, criticised US President Donald Trump's idea to move Palestinians out of Gaza to other locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
"Political coercion and demographic manipulations will not be able to force the Palestinians to migrate," Baqaei said in a post on X, adding that Gaza is the Palestinians' "homeland and they've paid (an) extremely high price to remain there."
Thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to Gaza's most war-ravaged northern region starting Monday after Israeli troops withdrew from the region as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Israel had prevented Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the truce, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late Sunday they would be allowed to pass after a new agreement was reached.
Late Monday, the Hamas government in Gaza said "more than 300,000 displaced" had returned during the day "to the governorates of the north", an area of Gaza severely battered by the war.
Israel has been found to have committed genocide against the Palestinian people during its 15-month-long war on Gaza. Israel has killed at least 47,000 Palestinians including over 18,000 children, more than 200 journalists and over a thousand healthcare workers, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
(With inputs from Online Desk)