DOHA, September 21. /TASS/. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on all Islamic countries to downgrade political relations with Israel and to sever economic ties with it. He was speaking at the International Conference of Islamic Unity in Tehran, his press service reported.

"The Zionist regime is committing crimes shamelessly and without hiding it," Khamenei said about Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as strikes on Lebanon and Syria. He is certain that Israel continues to commit these crimes because the Islamic community has not used its "inner strength" yet.

"The Islamic world should downgrade political relations with the Zionist regime, step up pressure on it in the media and clearly show that it stands firmly on the side of the oppressed Palestinian people," Khamenei added. As a first step, he called on the Islamic countries to "completely sever economic ties" with Israel.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated after the infiltration of Palestinian Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, accompanied by killings of residents of border settlements and hostage-taking. Hamas said the attack was in response to the Israeli authorities' actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip and began strikes against the Palestinian enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria.

On September 17 and 18, Lebanon saw a spate of explosions of communication devices. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in different parts of the country. According to the Ministry of Health, 12 people, including 2 children, were killed, and 2,800 taken to hospitals with injuries. The next day, radios, phones, as well as devices powered by solar panels and lithium-ion batteries exploded in various parts of Lebanon. The second attack left 25 people dead and 608 injured.