ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr cautioned on Wednesday that Israel wants to reach Iraqi borders as Tel Aviv resumed its deadly campaign on Gaza, killing and wounding over 1,000 since the early hours of Tuesday.

Sadr also strongly condemned the fresh Israeli operation in Gaza.

“Many have been content to remain silent and watch the martyrs of Gaza… All of this will lead to the sale of Palestine once again,” Sadr said in an X post, adding it will allow Israel “to expand into the Islamic and Arab lands with ease, and even with help from here and there so that Israel can reach the Iraqi borders, which the enemy wants first and foremost.”

Israel on Tuesday resumed its most deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip since a January 19 ceasefire between it and Hamas.

The aerial campaign, which came after the collapse of talks on extending the fragile ceasefire, has claimed the lives of up to 400 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned late Tuesday that the strikes were "only the beginning" and that future negotiations with Hamas "will take place only under fire.”

Netanyahu has attributed the renewed campaign on Gaza to “Hamas' repeated refusal to release” the remaining hostages.

“We knew and warned about what the situation would lead to in Gaza and elsewhere,” Sadr said, adding the presence of "the Zionist enemy in the region will not lead to any good consequences.”

The influential Iraqi cleric’s remarks come just days after Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Al Iraqiya that they had subdued the threat of an Israeli offensive on Iraq, warning that the possibility of an Israeli attack on the country is not gone, but only “postponed”.

The attacks on Gaza have prompted scores of condemnations from regional and international countries, including Iraq. 

The Iraqi foreign ministry on Tuesday called the attacks "a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law," calling on the international community to "assume its moral and legal responsibilities” and act to end the renewed offensive.