Special report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts         

    TEHRAN, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani said here Sunday that Gaza will turn to the graveyard of "Zionist forces", the official IRNA agency reported.

    "The Zionists attacks have been countered with full defense and resistance of the Palestinian combatants", he said to IRNA, adding that "the Zionists must know that Gaza will turn to a graveyard for their forces."

    On Saturday, Israel's ground troops entered the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for the second phase of its offensive on the militant group after eight days of airstrikes.

    Israel's military action, aimed at retaliating for Hamas militants' rocket attacks into Israel, has killed some 480 Palestinians and wounded more than 2,400 others in the past eight days.

    Iran has incessantly called for the wholesale support of Muslim world and strongly condemned the silence of some Arab states which Iran says pave the way for Israel's further offense.

    On Friday, Iran's influential cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on the Muslim Ummah (community) to assist Hamas with political, weaponry, monetary and propagandistic support.

    Hamas is strongly backed by Iran which does not recognize Israel as a state of the international community.