Iran Condemns Israeli Strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza

In a statement on Sunday, Spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baqaei called for a serious and immediate response from the competent international bodies, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Denouncing the ongoing genocidal crimes by the Zionist regime in Gaza and the continued torture and slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, Baqaei reiterated the direct responsibility of the regime’s key military and financial backers -particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany- for the crimes being committed.

He also stressed the need to end the prevailing impunity enjoyed by the Israeli war criminals, the Foreign Ministry’s website reported.

If the international community and relevant authorities -especially the United Nations Security Council, the World Health Organization, and the International Committee of the Red Cross- had taken meaningful and effective measures in response to the Zionist regime’s criminal attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17, 2023, today’s tragic recurrence of that atrocity would have been averted, he added.

He also recalled the systematic and deliberate targeting of hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza by the Zionist regime over the past eighteen months, which has resulted in the killing of hundreds of Palestinian physicians, nurses, and humanitarian workers.

Baqaei emphasized that the destruction of Palestine’s healthcare infrastructure constitutes not only a flagrant violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the principles of the international humanitarian law, but also forms an integral part of a broader scheme of genocide and the erasure of Palestine.

He underscored that all states -particularly the Islamic states- bear the legal and moral obligation to adopt the necessary measures to halt these atrocities and to prosecute and punish the criminal officials of the occupying regime.