‘US sanctions on banks a direct attack on ordinary citizens’

The death toll from the overnight Israeli aggression against a number of military positions across Iran has risen to four.

Earlier the Iranian Army had announced the martyrdom of two of its forces in the Israeli attack, who lost their lives “while confronting the projectiles of the criminal Zionist regime in order to safeguard the security of Iran and prevent harm to the Iranian nation and interests.”

Media reports identified the two martyred Army forces as Major Hamzeh Jahandideh and Sergeant Mohammad-Mehdi Shahrokhifar.

Major Sajjad Mansouri and Sergeant Mehdi Naghavi, who had been injured in line of duty, also succumbed to their injuries, reports said.  

The strikes targeted parts of military sites in the capital Tehran as well as the western and southwestern provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan, with Iran’s air defense saying the attacks were “successfully intercepted and countered.”

The attacks caused “limited damage” in some locations and the dimensions of the incident are under investigation.

Despite Israeli media reports overplaying the Israeli attack by circulating fake images, the Iranian public returned to their routines and daily life continued smoothly across the country.

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization announced that flights had resumed after a short interruption and footage from Mehrabad Airport in western Tehran showed operations running normally, with passengers moving through as usual.

The Tehran Oil Refining Company also dismissed rumors of an Israeli attack on its facilities.

On October 1, Iran responded to the Israeli assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan by launching as many as 200 ballistic missiles toward the occupying regime’s military and intelligence bases all over the occupied Palestinian territories.

Dubbed Operation True Promise II, the retaliatory strike dealt a severe blow to the illegal regime all the more ruinous than its prequel in April, with Tel Aviv having so far declined to reveal the extent of loss it suffered despite vowing to respond on several occasions.

A recent survey has exposed a troubling rise in anti-Muslim racism across Europe, fueled by heightened conflicts in West Asia and Europe’s increasingly hostile climate for Muslims. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) revealed on Thursday that nearly half of European Muslims faced discrimination in the past five years, with the situation worsening notably over the last year as violence flared in Gaza.

Nicole Romain, a spokeswoman for FRA, confirmed reports of intensified anti-Muslim hate across several EU countries. "Even before the current escalation, it was already becoming increasingly challenging to live as a Muslim in the EU," she said, pointing to dehumanizing rhetoric and profiling practices that target Muslims based on religion, ethnicity, and even physical appearance.

The survey, conducted prior to Israel’s large-scale assault on Gaza, included data from over 9,600 Muslims across more than a dozen EU nations between October 2021 and October 2022. The results highlighted Austria as having the highest rate of discrimination against Muslims at 71 percent, followed closely by Germany (68 percent) and Finland (63 percent). France, home to Europe’s second-largest Muslim population, reported a rate of 39 percent.

Women and children are disproportionately affected, particularly those wearing religious attire such as the hijab. FRA's report sheds light on the pervasive racial profiling Muslims face, from random police checks to discrimination in employment despite high qualifications. Director Sirpa Rautio warned that as conflicts continue to escalate, the impact on Muslims in Europe is likely to worsen, compounding challenges for the EU’s 26 million-strong Muslim population, which makes up more than 5 percent of the bloc's residents.

The UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has described Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip as “the collective shame of the century” amid the failure of the international community to protect Palestinians’ rights.

Francesca Albanese made the remarks in an X post on Sunday, as more than a year of the Israeli onslaught has flattened Gaza, killed tens of thousands of innocent people, and displaced almost the entire population in the besieged territory, often multiple times.

“In Gaza, the collective shame of the century continues unabated and unstopped, in defiance of every norm of international law and morale,” she said.

“The Palestinians, exhausted by relentless attacks on their bodies and souls are abandoned to their tormentors.”

Albanese also noted that “summary executions, mass forced displacements, and other egregious abuses” that are being perpetrated by the occupation forces against Palestinians in Gaza are all “a disgraceful testament to our global failure to protect basic human rights.”

“The United Nations, once a believed beacon of hope and a force for peace, are crumbling under the weight of this shame - and the pressure of the inaction or complicity of its most powerful member states,” she emphasized.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza offensive on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 42,603 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 99,795 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In a violation of international law, Israel has issued mass evacuation orders in Gaza and deliberately targeted schools and hospitals, used as shelters by displaced Palestinians.

The US and its allies, which have been supporting Israel, have prevented the UN from putting an end to the brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip despite an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe there.