of

of the headlines iran's consulate building in syria's capital damascus comes under attack several people have been confirmed dead. iran

and hamas call of for an international investigation in crimes committed in gaza's al shafa hospital and the islamic resistance in iraq says it has staged fresh attacks on israeli targets in the port city of alat in response to the regime's genocide in gaza. hello and welcome, you're watching world news on press tv, thank you for joining us, my name is gisum shah madi and these are top stories, this hour, several people have been killed in israeli air strike, targeting the consular section of iran's embassy. in

damascus, syria. the attack targeted the building next to the embassy, that's also the residence of iran's ambassador in the maza neighborhood in central damascus. the ambassador and his family are not harmed, firefighters are at the scene to contain the blaze caused by the strike. the syrian capital has been a constant target of israeli attacks in the latest such atrocities, israeli forces targeted the vicinity of the capital damascus with rockets. launched from the direction of the occupied golen heights. you can see the images that we have received from damascus, assyrian capital, you see the iranian embassy right there with the iranian flag top. top of the embassy right next to

the embassy was the counselor building that has been completely raised to the ground. we do know that there are three iranians. among of those that have been killed in this attack on the building that you just saw there and moving on, it is almost six months since israel launched its genocidal war on gaza, the regime war planes and artillery keep pounding the base strip causing more deaths and destruction in 24 hours. four civilians including journalists were killed and 16 others were injured after israeli war plane struck the vicinity of al-aksam marter. hospital in central gaza in deir al-bala. several areas of gaza city were also shelled and bomb, leaving two people dead and 10 others injured. meanwhile, four palestinians including two children died due to starvation in kamal adwan hospital in the northern

strip. the number of deaths related to femine and malnutrition has gone up 34, including 31 children, over 32,800. palestinians have lost their lives and some 75,000 of them have been injured in the israeli war on gaza that began early october and gaza's health ministry says israeli forces have returned from al shifa hospital after weeks of siege on the medical complex, the ministry says dozens of bodies were found at the medical... complex after the israeli pullout, the facility has been completely out of service since the regime burned it down. the gaza governant says more than 400 people have been killed in the area since israel began its attacks on the health facility on march 18th. hamas says heinous

crimes committed by israel at the hospital reveal the true nature of the fascist regime. the resistance group holds the us government response. for the israeli atrocities, meanwile iran's foreign ministry spokesman says media reports on the scale of destruction at al-shifah hospital and the torture and killing of palestinians there are simply appalling. nasar khanani said for an international investigation, he has called actually for an international investigation into this incident. and now back to our story the day, our correspondent ibrahim wahti is joining us from damascus with the latest on the uh attack on iran's consulate building in damascus. ibrahim, tell us, what have you got

for us? okay, uh, first uh, as we can say uh, as we said before, the uh, aggression, it's an aggression that targeted the iranian. cancelate next to the iranian embassy which is a diplomatic mission here as you can see in damascus this this street i have to move i have to change my place because the vehicles are trying to take off the rubble from the building - the attack resulted in five marters according to the iranian ambassador we just had him we just had a statement from the ira an ambassador which was which also had visit from the syrian minister of foreign affairs, dr. faisal maqdad, he just made the visit to the iranian ambassador, he checked on him and he checked on the location, as sorry for the noise, the iranian ambassador

said that there are five marters, two of them are from the uh police of this of the the the embassy security ' three were employees, he was at his office when the attack happened and uh, he was intact, he was, he's safe, he and his family, sorry for the noise, the also there has been reports of the ass, this is an assassination attempt, according to reports, uh, there's the general of irgc, sayid ali zahidi was reportedly martered in this attack as well, the as you can see this is a crowded street, it was before iftar time, the the

first moment i had to mention this, the first moment we arrived to to the scene, we've seen wounded. injured people inside their cars, because this is a highway, as you can see, this is a highway that cross damascus from east to west, okay, it's usually crowded, one the most crowded, highways in damascus civil defense and uh first eight teams were uh helping inj injured uh in the sorry i'm moving because vehicles are moving around me uh the they were giving first aid to angel people uh inside their cars uh so the attack did not even uh affected or killed. murdered five employees in the building, also it

harmed the civilians around the in the surrounding area, two buildings, just the next building from the other side from the the embassy, as you can see the blue one, this is also hospital, the razi hospital, but as we can see as as we know also the israeli regime doesn't care about anything, we see we have seen the... side in gaza, we've seen what they have done to uh the hospitals in gaza, like ash hospital, almahdani hospital, we all seen the its crimes, so far this is the all new information we have got, some reports said that there has been a senior palestinian leader that was assassinated, this is false information uh palestinian. leaders was was here, as i said only reportedly the there has been report sorry of

the mar of irgc general uh, sorry for the noise, also when we were taking a statement from the... ambassador, after we ask him about the marters, we asked about the retaliation, he said that iran will retaliate at the same level in the right time, this act of war, this act of this crime will not go unanswered, the israeli regime will answer for this, that was the statement of the iranian ambassador, he also condemned the attack, consider him unhuman. barbaric savage attack which shows the uh the savage nature

uh the barbaric nature of this uh criminal entity uh hope you're getting this whole view uh fire fighting teams uh have been dealing with the fires uh sometimes within cars uh because uh some of the fires were like sparks uh within closed places every time you ' uh uncover uh a part of the building, fire gets air and it spread right away, so fire fighting teams are uh, fire fighting teams are on high alert at the moment, trying their best to deal with these fires, erupting every once in a while, every few minutes, every sometimes every 15 or 10 minutes, civil defense teams, syrian civil defense teams are also still searching for survivors, uh until this moment uh in cooperation with the fire fighting team uh that's it for now uh as the

new information we have so you told us that you did talk to the iranian ambassador who was fortunately in good health with his family they were safe as you talked to them and there was a statement if you could please tell us more about that uh the statement just uh uh, he he was just asked about the marters, he said five marters, two of them, the embassy security, three uh were the employees, he was at his office working and suddenly it happened, we asked about if there's any other figures, he didn't give any more information about that, the statement was was short, he also just confirmed that this attack will not, and answered this crime, this is he considered this platin violation not only for the uh syrian

sovereinity also for iran, because as also as we said before, this is a diplomatic mission, according to every law, it should have been stayed neutralized, no one should have attacked it, even at war, diplomatic missions should be granted safely. so now okay, so he condemned this attack and... considered it a violt a violation of not only international law, not only human norms, it's a violation of humanity itself, it's a crime against humanity, sorry, everyone is pointing to

something around me, sorry, as you can see the the... city hall teams are uh trying to evacuate the place, this car also for the embassy, it was damaged and now they're removing it, the car, the car was uh on fire also. uh the building of the councilate was four story building uh as you can see it was all it's all collapsed now uh the first floor as i believe is still i'm not gonna say still

intact it's damaged but it's buried under the uh uh the three followers above uh so you did tell us about the number of people that so far have been identified and they uh the number of people that have been killed do we have number for that right now we have conflicting reports here in tehran we have six eight three so uh how many people have been killed okay the confirmed number that we got from the the ambassador was five. okay, we have reports of more than that, numbers are talking about eight, but i believe that we can also depend on the statement of the ambassador, because as i said also some

reports indicated that there has been a palestinian leader, senior palestinian leader and there wasn't according to uh what we've seen so far, so we can only depend on what the ambassador is giving us as for us now, as for us on the ground, and do we know who these people are, the iranians, where they identified, iranians, but we didn't get names, i believe there will be a statement, a written sp statement late later, they're trying to pull out something. i believe that there will be a written statement later that would identify them one by one and any officials also the official what have there been any officials visiting the site if you could please give us an update yeah the

officials as i said before the the head of police department. didn't give a statement, the h the the the governor also came, he also didn't give a statement unfortunately, but also almaqdad, dr faisal, the syrian minister of foreign affairs, he came to check to check on the the ambassador and the scene also, he he conved his the president concerns about this attack and solidarity and confirmed that syria and iran will always stand together, nothing, this will never intimidate us, as syrians, this will this attack will never intimidate us, if the israeli message is to scare us away or to tell us that as long as

your allies with iran, this is what you get, okay, we welcoming this, we're not afraid of it ' we can we can handle it and we will never back off, that was basically the the message that the syrian minister of foreign affairs d conveyed to dr. professor dr. husain akbar, the iranian ambassador in damascus. okay, thank you very much, that was our correspondent joining us live from damascus at the scene. where the attack has happened, he will be giving us more updates, but for the time being, let's go to toronto and talk to firas, najim, human rights activist who could give us more of his analysis. of this attack at this point in time, mr. najim, uh, tell us why do you think this attack happened at this point in time? we have a un resolution passed against

israel, we have palestinian senior officials consulting with iranian officials for a cease fire and the terms and conditions of it. well, this is obviously a regime that wants the war to continue, it does not want any kind of cease fire, what? soever: yes, i think, the israeli regime is feeling the heat, because they're being attacked from different dimensions in different areas, as i learned yesterday, there was a confirmed attack by the iraqi resistance, another ally the islamic republic of iran, and then you see that, the resistance on the ground in palestine, hamas and islamic jihad are fighting intensively and... very strongly and the israelies are not being able to destroy them or weaken them, same time hizballah is also yesterday, i have confirmed some news

that they also hit the military base um in the north of palestine, so all the allies of the islamic republic of iran are hitting the zionist regime very heavily, and then you see at the same time the yemenis are blocking the ships that are going to support the israeli regime, so they're feeling the heat, and i think this is kind of... response to all the attacks that are happening against the israeli regime uh for the first time in history that they're being attacked from all different dimensions like this um and and feeling feeling the heat and the uh feeling so weak and feeling so um um they're being slapped around you mean this bully finally there's different hands that are slapping this bully and they know that the islamic republic of iron is the main supporter main financer possibly uh main uh you know uh um supplier of the arms and training and all that kind of stuff, so for them, this was, i think it was very suicidal type of move, very foolish move of the israely regime to hit a

diplomatic, you know, facility that represents the islamic republic of iran, so this is a direct attack on the islamic republic of iran, this is, you can, you can, you can, you know, you can look it as an attack on the land of iran, so uh, let's... what the islamic republic of iran will do in retaliation uh once the investigation is done, we obviously as human rights organization we send our condolences to the victims of this terrorist attack by the designist regime and we're hoping that you know justice will be served and that uh the islamic republic of iran will make the wisest decision you know to punish this regime and hold them accountable for all these crimes. uh, okay, so mr. al-najim, israel has been carrying out similar attacks on syria uh, for quite some time now, violating uh syria's

sovereignty. don't you think it is time for some kind of international action to stop this? um, i mean, it took so many years and uh, so many uh, uh, deaths of palestinians for finally to get some type of... non-binding resolution in the united nations, so i i don't trust that there will be such push, because obviously the united nations is controlled by international members, countries that are mostly allied with israel and they're against syria and they're against the government in syria and they're also against the islamic republic of iran and you know their support of the resistance groups, so i really don't see that happening, i don't you... "i don't even see a condemmination, i'm not sure, but i mean it is a diplomatic facility, so this represents a government, and you know, maybe some governments might

stand up and say that this is a breach of international law, this is major violation, and maybe some countries in the west are scared that the the war, the war or the clashes or the battle might intensify a heavier level uh, when when when such a..." move is is taken um and and this can pull the whole west into you know the war inside west asia middle east so it is possible right like this is not a not a very small attack this is huge attack um and there is also deaths possibly even diplomats were killed inside that that embassy um like i said we we're hoping for justice for this so musan najim uh just as you mentioned yourself israel does not seem to be complying by any kind of international law. on the other hand, we do know that the islamic republic of iran has shown lot of restraint when it comes to

israeli provocations. this is clearly uh another provocation um of course iran uh iran has announced that it will uh be there will be a response to this attack um how wisely do you think the islamic republic of iran will be choosing its next step um i mean iran has always been very restrained and very uh patient and very wise with how they respond i did they they don't want to pull the whole region into a you know a big battle and a big war, right? iran cares about its nation, about his citizens, about the blood of these, human beings, and they're trying to as much as they can in some ways deescalate, but they have to support you know the resistance groups that are fighting the colonial powers or the occupation in palestine, i mean there's other option, i mean the people of gaza are you in a concentration can. the

their the they're in a jail, an open air jail and prison for many years, and you know even when they had their march of return protest, they were peaceful, they were sniping them and killing them and shooting them everywhere, they killed in one day, i remember like few hundred people, so the israeli regime there is other way to deal with them only by resisting, and and nobody and nobody has really came to the front doors or knocked on the door to help the palestinians more than the islamic... republic of iraq and it's very clear, i mean i'm not, i'm not saying this myself, just me or other people in the media, i mean the the the resistance groups in palestine have always been clear that the islamic republic of iran is at the front and supporting the palestinian cause, and um, this is very honorable stand, i think this is very honorable project to support people that are oppressed that are trying to get out of this oppression and that are living the worst

conditions, and we see... "know what the israeli regime did, they got attacked uh, you know, one time in in their history, you know, and look what they did as in retaliation, they killed over 30,00 people, you know, and uh, they don't care about any humanity, the they they destroyed hospitals, they destroyed churches, they destroyed mus, they destroyed schools, anything you can think about, any facility, they'll just justify it somehow and say there's terrorists there, or there is a you know base of hamas fighters, they'll just..." any excuse, but i mean this is not an excuse, even if there was certain fighters fighting in that area, you don't have a right to go in a hospital and start blowing up people and killing people while they're looking for medical assistance and help and they're in emergency rules, i mean this shows how you know how inhumane the israeli regime is, how inhumane the idf is, how criminal it is and how they're breaching every law in the book right now, and unfortunately there's no

real accountability and no real punishment, but then when it comes to other countries, they impose so much sanctions, without even with lot of them time, lot of times it's baseless, there's not much evidence, right now you have so much evidence because the israel is themselves expose themselves with all the videos and the things that they put on social media, like the crimes are just like the the they're bluntly expressing support of their crimes and they're happy about their crimes of stealing people's property. you know blowing up buildings, anything you can think about, any type of crazy criminal activity, you can see the idf for are actually doing it, and and they do it like because because the west hasn't held them accountable, because the west is sitting there idolly watching the israelis commit all these crimes for all these years, so the criminal thinks that you know what, the government i'm not going to be held accountable, so i'm just going to keep keep committing crimes, thank you very much. mr.

firas al najim, human rights activist from toronto. please stand by, we're going to bring in christopher halali, researcher and political analyst who is joining us from vermont, if you could please tell us your analysis of this attack, the timing of it, and what this could indicate? first and foremost, condolences and sympathies to the families of the now marters who were who were who were brutally murdered in this illegal and provocative attack. of course, this is a tremendous violation of international law, it's a violation of the vienna convention on diplomatic relations and consular affairs, this is a direct attack on the islamic republic of iran by israel, because as we know diplomatic uh sites, be they embassies or consulates, are considered the inviable territory of the country uh in which they are representing, and so of course this is attack

on iran, this is very... very dark day, this shows the escalation of the zionist regime and the provocations of the zionist regime for much wider conflict in the region. we hear calls in the connessit uh and amongst some of the far right in israel calling for a wider conflict and basically calling for an apocalyptic conflict, this is the conflict that will create what they say will be the greater israel and is justified by god for them, and so of course this is a tremendously dangerous moment, of course we now have reports that the general zahedi was was martered as well as many others that we don't yet know, the number is fluctuating around six, they are saying, but i feel very very concerned and very worried about the the wider regional implications and of course we know that israel has been violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of

syria and lebanon uh for years now, and of course this escalation now brings in other actors and i believe not only iran will respond, but i believe also the russian federation who is a partner in syria and has bases in syria. will also have to take uh this regional security issue into account uh given the fact that they have uh great relations uh with iran and so i think that this is uh this is going escalate very quickly and this is this is probably one of the darkest moments uh since october 7th in terms of the escalations in the region. well thank you very much mr. halali for your comments right there. i was just informed that we have the statement issued by iran's ambassador in damas this and i am reading the statement right now in persian translating it to you in english, it says that we are not afraid of any of the atrocities of the israelies.