Qalibaf: World Must Choose Sides After Gaza Toddler Tortured By ’Israel’

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the world must side with besieged Gaza or with its oppressors, insisting "there is no middle ground", after "Israeli" occupation forces [IOF] reportedly tortured a one-year-old child.

Qalibaf made the comments on Monday, after the official Palestine TV a day earlier aired footage showing IOF subjected a one-year-old child in central Gaza to torture to pressure his father into making confessions during an interrogation.

“Iran is fighting for humanity. The world is either with Gaza and against this colonial terror regime, or it stands with the Epstein class and child torturers. There is no middle ground,” Qalibaf stressed in a post on X.

The footage showed injuries to the 18-month-old child, identified as Karim, whose father - Osama Abu Nassar - was stopped for interrogation at a military checkpoint near the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

While Osama was being interrogated, "Israeli" forces burned one of the toddler’s legs with cigarettes and inserted a nail into his leg in front of his father, as confirmed by a medical report, Palestinian journalist Osama al-Kahlout reported.

According to Turkey’s TRT World, Osama was taking Karim to buy supplies, he was caught up in gunfire near his home and was forced by IOF to leave his 18-month-old son on the ground and approach a nearby military checkpoint, where he was stripped and interrogated.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in al-Maghazi managed to hand Karim over to his family after being held in police custody for 10 hours, the report further said, adding that his father still remains in "Israeli" detention.

Since the US-backed October 2023 ceasefire, "Israeli" attacks have killed at least 677 Palestinians and injured over 1,800, while the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza has claimed more than 72,000 lives, wounded over 171,000, and destroyed nearly 90% of civilian infrastructure.