Iran called on world leaders Thursday to hold Israel to its obligations under a recently announced US-backed hostage and ceasefire deal aimed at permanently ending the war in Gaza.
Amid widespread celebration among Israelis and Gazans over the impending ceasefire, Tehran implied Jerusalem would renege on its commitments and urged the international community to “prevent the occupying regime’s violations of its obligations,” alleging the “deceit and duplicity of the Zionist regime.”
In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry also urged international agencies to track down and prosecute Israelis who “ordered and perpetrated war crimes” during the IDF’s two-year offensive, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
“The cessation of crimes and genocide in Gaza does not in any way relieve States and competent international institutions of their shared legal, humanitarian and moral duty to pursue justice through the identification and prosecution of those who ordered and perpetrated war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip,” said the ministry.
The ministry’s statement also urged an end to the supposed “decades-long impunity enjoyed by the Zionist regime.”
The hostage and ceasefire deal, announced by US President Donald Trump overnight, will see the release within days of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. In exchange, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, hundreds of whom were convicted of deadly terror attacks on Israelis.
The deal will guarantee a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of war, over the course of which over 66,000 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Nepal — whose citizen Bipin Joshi is one of the 48 remaining captives — welcomed the agreement, urging the immediate release of all hostages and flow of aid to the devastated enclave.
“We urge all parties concerned to implement the plan in its true spirit, to ensure the smooth flow of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza and to pave the way for lasting peace in the region and beyond,” the Nepali foreign ministry said in a statement.
Joshi, a 23-year-old farming student from Nepal, was abducted by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, when they attacked the kibbutz as part of a vicious assault on the Gaza border communities.
The young man’s family released a 33-second video Wednesday of him thought to have been filmed a month after his abduction. The footage was recovered by the IDF and shared with his relatives. No sign of life has been received for Joshi since that month. In May, Israel said his fate was unknown, but the family is holding out hope.
The ministry further commended the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey for their “pivotal role in securing this much-awaited agreement.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said he congratulated Trump “on the success of the historic Gaza peace plan” during a call that focused on US-India trade talks.
Though the first phase of the deal was to be finalized Thursday evening after a cabinet vote, many other details of the agreement, including plans for postwar Gaza, have yet to be ironed out and sealed.