Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said that resistance was the only way to confront Israel in the Gaza conflict.

"Today the only way to confront these aggressors is resistance in the name of God," Ahmadinejad said during a religious ceremony in Tehran.

Nonetheless, Ahmadinejad has started extensive diplomatic efforts and dispatched 22 envoys to several Asian and European states with the aim of an immediate stop to the crisis and blockade of Gaza.

According to the ISNA news agency, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also referred to the Gaza conflict on Thursday, saying that Iran would offer all necessary support and help to Palestine. He did not clarify what kind of help Iran would offer.

Iran has several times denied military aid to the Hamas group in Palestine, saying its support for resistance groups in Palestine and Lebanon (Hezbollah) would be limited to the spiritual and political and not the military.

"The massacre of children, women and innocent people in Gaza is a unique catastrophe and the final aim is to eliminate the resistance and gain dominance over the region," the ayatollah said. Khamenei has final say on all state affairs under the Iranian constitution.

Without mentioning any Arab state by name, the ayatollah warned regional governments that not taking side with Hamas would eventually bring them "increased humiliation."

Ahmadinejad also said last week that "those who have openly or secretly tied their interests to the Zionists (Israel) should know that they will eventually go all together to hell." (dpa)