http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gaza-palestinians-get-iran-leader-khameneis-support/1/374619.htmlThe supreme leader of Iran, which does not recognise Israel and supports militant anti-Israeli groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group, has called on Muslims from around the world to help arm Gaza Palestinians in their fight against Israel.
Khamenei claims that while Israel and America seek to disarm Hamas, Iran says "the opposite ... the Muslim World has a duty to arm the Palestinian nation by all means."
Iran does not recognise Israel and has considered the Jewish state its archenemy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed monarchy and brought clerics to power.
Khamenei spoke at a prayer ceremony in Tehran as Shiite Iranians marked the beginning of Eid al-Fitr holiday that follows the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
WHO IS ALI KHAMENEI
Ali Hosseini Khamenei (born on July 17, 1939), who is the current Supreme Leader of Iran and a Shia Cleric, had also served as the President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. In 2012, Forbes selected him 21st in the list of The World's Most Powerful People.
At least five Israeli soldiers were killed when militants from Gaza crossed into Israel through a tunnel near the border, the military said on Tuesday.
The soldiers were killed on Monday night in the ensuing gun battle, a spokesperson with the Israeli military said in a statement.
"The terrorists attempted to execute an attack against Israeli civilians using a tunnel shaft leading to the Nahal Oz community," Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.
"Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers thwarted the attempt by identifying the squad and opening fire."
So far, 53 soldiers from IDF and three Israeli civilians have been killed during the military campaign which started July 8.
Israel has embarked on a massive offensive on Gaza, saying that it was aimed at stopping rocket fire from the southern Palestinian enclave.
It later said that the purpose of the offensive was to destruct the underground network of cross-border tunnels, which enable militants to slip into Israel.
The Palestinian toll in the ongoing offensive has soared to 1,074 with at least 6,500 wounded, the Gaza health ministry said.
