Israel has committed "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

"What Israeli authorities are doing (in Gaza) today is a genocide and a big historical disaster," Khamenei said when addressing a huge crowd gathered to mark the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Peacemakers around the world should demand the punishment of those who committed these crimes, Khamenei said.

"The foremost issue of the Islamic world and, perhaps, humanity today is Gaza," he said, adding that "a rabid dog has attacked the oppressed people and the world should react to this".

The resistance of Palestinians in Gaza, who are under blockade and deprived of water and power supplies, shows "the power of a nation" and this is "a big lesson", he added.

The recent developments in Gaza show that the enemy is "regretful" about what it had done and it is caught in a dilemma, so it seeks the European Union and the US' help to "impose a cease-fire on the Gazans", Khamenei said.

He rejected calls for disarming the Islamic militants in Gaza, saying that "the US president has issued a fatwa (decree) that the resistance should be disarmed so that they (militants) cannot respond to all the crimes (by Israel in Gaza), however ... the world and the Islamic world, in particular, should help supply the Palestinian people (with arms) ".

(China Daily 07/30/2014 page11)