Earlier, current and former US officials told a major news agency that Washington was considering a 'near wholesale rollback' of sanctions against Tehran to end the months-long standoff about which side makes the first move to restore the functioning of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen has called the JCPOA a "bad deal" and warned that Israel is willing to take military action to stop Tehran in its alleged quest to obtain a nuclear weapon.

"A bad deal will send the region spiraling into war," Cohen said, speaking to Reuters on Thursday. "Anyone seeking short-term benefits should be mindful of the longer-term."

"Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear arms. Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our planes can reach everywhere in the Middle East - and certainly Iran," he added.

Cohen went on to suggest that along with preventing Iran from expanding its uranium enrichment and missile development capabilities, the US and other powers should force it to stop "destabilizing other countries" and funding militant groups. The minister did not elaborate regarding which countries he had in mind.

United Nations human rights experts raised alarm on Tuesday over the "deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza," particularly in regards to its healthcare system.

"It has been starved of equipment, medicines and trained staff. It is buckling under the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, it is trying to treat the more than 2,000 Palestinians injured during this latest violence," the rights experts said.

Only around 2 percent of Gaza's residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and an Israeli airstrike damaged the only testing lab in the territory, temporarily shutting it down.

In the absence of a ceasefire, OCHA called for a humanitarian pause in hostilities so that "humanitarian staff and critical goods" can be brought into Gaza.

Israel halted the transfer of humanitarian aid on Tuesday, saying that Hamas fighters had fired mortars at the aid caravan.

OCHA said that "only five of the 24 humanitarian trucks scheduled for today entered Gaza."

Israel's narrative of events - and its claim that is "coordinating" the passage of humanitarian aid - should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, called on Israel to allow humanitarian staff and supplies into Gaza and said on Tuesday that the agency was "urgently awaiting approval through established mechanisms to cross into Gaza."

Israel has also prevented travel to and from Gaza via Erez checkpoint, Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, said on Tuesday. This includes "the entry of medical personnel, staff of international aid organizations and journalists, as well as the exit of urgent humanitarian cases."

Israel exploited its shutdown of the transfer of humanitarian aid on Tuesday for propaganda purposes, falsely posturing as though it is actively facilitating the transfer of urgently needed aid rather than consistently obstructing it.

"Under international law, Israel must allow passage of humanitarian goods and provide for the needs of the civilian population in Gaza as much as is required," Gisha said while also calling on Hamas to "enable passage of aid."

Humanitarian agencies and human rights groups have been calling on Israel to open Gaza's only commercial crossing since it was closed last Monday.

The possible uncontrolled escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would pose a significant danger given the fragile security system in the Middle East, and effort is currently being made to prevent new airstrikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"Well, the Middle Eastern region is not located on some other continent ... Obviously, the conflict poses a danger in the event of its uncontrolled growth and continuation, as many countries have quite difficult relations ... And the regional security system is quite fragile in general," Peskov told reporters.

"The huge deficit of mutual trust and the long-standing potential of regional conflicts certainly do not contribute to regional stabilization. But it is highly important to prevent the events from being transformed into a forceful scenario. Therefore, a very energetic effort is being made by the [Middle East] Quartet ... to stop the exchange of strikes," Peskov added.

Last week, special representatives of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators — Russia, the United States, the EU and UN — discussed holding a meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict settlement.

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© TRT
Gaza rescue team on break after a rough and violent night under Israeli strikes.

© farsnews.ir/Iran Front Page/azertac/KJN
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf • Saeed Khatibzadeh • Mohammad Javad Zarif

Tehran is demanding that the international community recognise Israel's "criminal" behaviour as "genocide," and is calling on other countries and organisations to end their "unacceptable neutrality" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has said.

Palestinians have an inherent and natural right to defend themselves and that the "reclamation" of their rights is "a global responsibility. There is only one possible 'just solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "a referendum with the participation of all original Palestinians, Muslims, Christians and Jews for the right to self-determination."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged OIC members to recognise Israeli actions as "genocide and crimes against humanity," and asked member states to "extend the jurisdiction of their national tribunals to include the prosecution of criminals perpetrating war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian occupied territories."

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament, denounced Israel as the "chief evil" in the Middle East and called on regional leaders to "assist the resistance forces as soon as possible to prevent a genocide" against Palestinians.

Iranian officials have indeed said repeatedly that they hope to see Israel be "eliminated" or "vanish from the page of time," but indicated that they expect this process to happen in a manner similar to the collapse of the regime of the Shah in Iran, or via a referendum, and not as a result of military action by Iran or any other Muslim nation.

© Reuters/Mohanned Salem
Smoke and flames during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, May 17, 2021

Israeli warplanes pummeled the Palestinian enclave overnight on Monday. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) hit buildings near Al-Qatiba Square in the western part of Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post, while local reports suggested that an office for Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs was targeted, as well as agricultural lands.

Israeli strikes so far claimed 212 lives including 61 children, the Gaza Health Ministry reported 1,400 Palestinians wounded, and forced some 40,000 families to flee their homes, A recent raid that struck a building of the local health ministry has also reportedly affected the enclave's main laboratory, bringing Covid-19 testing and vaccinations to a virtual halt.

The toll in Israel: 10 dead including 2 children and 50 injured.

The strikes triggered a "complete halt" to immunizations, virus screenings and telemedicine services at Gaza's al-Rimal clinic.

Israeli forces were targeting "densely populated residential areas," sending some 40,000 families to crowded shelters, which have become "a dangerous environment for the rapid spread of Covid-19." It urged the international community to provide "critically needed personal protection equipment" for the shelters. UN chief Antonio Guterres that the fighting could "unleash an uncontainable security and humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

A massive Israeli bombardment on Gaza's al-Wehda district on Sunday left multiple doctors dead, including Ayman Abu al-Ouf, the head of internal medicine at al-Shifa hospital - Gaza's largest medical center - and a key figure in the region's coronavirus response effort. Members of al-Ouf's family, as well as neurologist Mooein Ahmad al-Aloul, were killed in the attack, which saw some 150 missiles fired into the neighborhood.

IDF strikes also "severely damaged" a Red Crescent office based in a large commercial building on Monday, a group spokesperson said, while bombing over the weekend struck a Doctors Without Borders clinic, leaving several rooms unusable.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian expressed China's disappointment and that of the international community in the U.S. block on the joint statement, saying the U.S. is standing on the opposite side of the justice.

Noting that the U.S. has been isolated in the UNSC for its stance on the issue, Zhao urged the U.S. to drop its rhetoric on the rights and dignity of the Muslims and act to protect the rights and dignity of the Palestinians.

Instead of solely caring about its own interests on the issue, the U.S. should work with the international community, contribute to the cooling down of the tension and support the UNSC's role in settling disputes and rebuilding trusts, Zhao stressed.

China supports the two sides resuming peace talks based on a "two-state solution"