TEHRAN: Iran on Tuesday rejected Western calls to stand down its threat to retaliate against the Zionist entity for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month. The Islamic republic and its allies have blamed the Zionist entity for Haniyeh’s killing on July 31 during a visit to the Iranian capital for the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran has vowed to avenge the death, which came hours after a Zionist strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed group in Lebanon. Western diplomats have scrambled to prevent a major conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions are already high due to the Zionist-Hamas war in Gaza. In a statement on Monday, the United States and its European allies urged Iran to de-escalate.

The White House warned that a “significant set of attacks” by Iran and its allies was possible this week, saying the Zionist entity shared the same assessment.

The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in support of the Zionist entity. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani criticized the Western call for restraint. “The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said in a statement. The United States and its European allies also called for a ceasefire between the Zionist entity and Hamas in Gaza, with ceasefire talks to resume on Thursday.

The Zionist military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,929 people, according to a toll from the territory’s health ministry, mostly women and children. Far-right parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition strongly oppose any ceasefire in Gaza, a point rammed home by firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on a visit to Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that was swiftly condemned by its custodian Jordan. Defying longstanding rules that allow Jews and other non-Muslims to visit the compound but not to pray there, Ben Gvir led hundreds of Zionists in singing Jewish hymns and performing Talmudic rituals, images posted on social media networks showed.

In a video filmed inside the compound, Ben Gvir renewed his opposition to any let-up in the Gaza war. “We must win and not go to the talks in Doha or Cairo,” the minister said, referring to the truce talks planned for Thursday. “Minister Ben Gvir, instead of maintaining the status quo at the mosque is supervising the Judaization operation and trying to change the situation inside Al-Aqsa Mosque,” an official from the Waqf, the Jordanian body that is custodian of the site, said on condition of anonymity.

Zionist police also “imposed restrictions” on Muslim worshippers trying to enter the mosque, he said. Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned the “storming” of the mosque, calling it a “flagrant violation of international law”. “The continual violations of the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its sanctities require a clear and firm international position that condemns these violations,” ministry spokesperson Sufyan Al-Qudah said in a statement.

Netanyahu’s office said Ben Gvir’s visit “deviated from the status quo”. It said the Zionist entity’s policy on the so-called Temple Mount remained unchanged.

Ben Gvir’s provocations were condemned by the US, EU and the UN. Hamas has urged mediators to implement a truce plan earlier presented by US President Joe Biden instead of holding more talks.

Analyst Esfandyar Batmanghelidj said Iran was considering how to retaliate against the Zionist entity without derailing the ceasefire talks. “The renewed push for a ceasefire offers Iran a way out of this escalatory cycle,” Batmanghelidj, CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think-tank, told AFP. “Iranian officials still feel obliged to hit back at (the Zionist entity), but they must do so in a way that doesn’t derail the prospects for a ceasefire summit.” Despite more than 10 months of fighting in Gaza, Hamas has still on occasion been able to fire rockets into the Zionist entity.

On Tuesday the militants said they had fired two rockets at Tel Aviv in their first attack on the city in months. The Zionist army claimed a rocket from Gaza fell into the sea, while another was identified but “did not cross into (Zionist) territory”.

Pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza has grown since emergency services in the Hamas-run territory said a Zionist air strike on Saturday killed 93 people at a school housing displaced Palestinians. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow and told him he was “concerned” about civilian deaths in Gaza.

Putin called for a ceasefire and the “creation of a fully-fledged Palestinian state”, according to images shown on Russian state television. “Everyone is well aware that Russia today, unfortunately, must defend its interests and defend its people with arms in hand.

But what is happening in the Middle East, what is happening in Palestine, of course, does not go unnoticed on our part,” Putin said. “And of course, we are watching with great pain and anxiety the humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded in Palestine,” he added.

Abbas told Putin: “We feel that Russia is one of the dearest friends of the Palestinian people”. In the latest Gaza violence, a Zionist strike killed two parents and eight children in Abassan in the southern district of Khan Yunis, a medic from Nasser Hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The sole survivor from the Abu Haya family was a three-month-old girl named Rim, he said. “This little girl was pulled out of the rubble. Her whole family is dead. Who will take care of her now?” asked Ibrahim Barbakh, a resident of Khan Yunis, as he held the baby. – Agencies