Iran says Israelis should be tried as 'war criminals'

Photo: PTI

Tehran: Iran said on Tuesday that Israeli officials should be tried as war criminals over the 'brutal massacre' of Gazan protesters the previous day.

"The killing of children, women and defenceless people of Palestine and the occupation of Palestinian lands has become the main strategy of the Zionists over the 70 years of occupation," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on the ministry's website.

He called on the international community to take "immediate action" and try Israeli leaders as "war criminals in international courts".

At least 60 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured by Israeli forces on Monday as they protested along the Gaza border against the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

President Hassan Rouhani criticised the embassy move along with last week's decision by the US to walk away from the nuclear deal with Iran.

"History will judge that both of these decisions by the American government have been very wrong," he told reporters, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

"The main result of this wrong decision is Washington's isolation in global public opinion," he added.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani added that recent US policy decisions were undermining international institutions.

"All these cases show that America intends to destroy the international institution of the United Nations," he told parliament on Tuesday.

"It is driving the international scene to a kind of security chaos," he added. The US blocked a UN resolution on Monday calling for an international investigation into the Gaza killings.

On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced "a day of great shame".

"Israeli regime massacres countless Palestinians in cold blood as they protest in the world's largest open air prison," he wrote on Twitter.