WASHINGTON, Nov 1 — The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said yesterday that the Israel-Hamas war has emboldened "repression” inside the country, whose ruling clerics have championed the Palestinian militants.

Javaid Rehman, a human rights expert given a mandate from the Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that the Islamic republic was responding to a loss of credibility after mass protests set off by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman detained by police for failing to obey the strict public dress code.

"They were already planning further repression,” Rehman said at a Washington roundtable hosted by the National Union for Democracy in Iran, an advocacy group.

"In terms of the current crisis, they feel even more emboldened because they believe that they have deflected internal criticism, and the internal repression, through becoming or claiming to become the cheerleaders... of the Palestinian movement,” he said.

Iranian leaders have repeatedly issued warnings to Israel, with Yemen’s Iranian-backed Huthi rebels claiming to have fired drones or ballistic missiles at the country in three separate operations, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah firing missiles into Israel’s north.

The recent death of 17-year-old Armita Garawand has revived memories for some Iranians of Amini’s death.

Garawand was severely wounded in an incident on the Tehran metro on October 1 in what activists have described as an altercation with female police officers who had apprehended her for failing to wear the obligatory Islamic headscarf.

This has been strongly denied by Iranian officials who insist she collapsed and hurt herself as a result of low blood pressure.

Israel has launched raids and air strikes on Gaza since October 7, when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza and attacked Israeli communities and military posts, killing around 1,400 people and taking 240 hostages.

Since then, Israel has responded with an unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 8,500 people, nearly half of them children. — AFP