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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa asked his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday to talk to the militant Palestinian group Hamas to try to ease tension in the conflict with Israel, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Iran-backed Hamas that rules Gaza after fighters burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,300 people, mainly civilians, in the deadliest day in the country's 75-year-old history.
Kamikawa held a phone call with Hossein Abdollahian on Tuesday as Israel prepares to escalate an offensive against Hamas that has triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and raised fears of a broader conflict with Iran.
Kamikawa and Abdollahian agreed to cooperate to improve humanitarian access to Gaza, a foreign ministry statement said.
They also reached an agreement on the importance of the international community coming together for humanitarian support.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday Israel's "genocide" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should stop "immediately".
Kamikawa said there were currently about 900 Japanese citizens in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai later said the government planned to evacuate them with Japanese military aircraft as early as in the second half of this week.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Nick Macfie)
