Iran Condemns Israeli Attack on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital

In a statement on Monday, Spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the heinous Israeli bombing of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.

Denouncing the killing of patients and medical staff, as well as five journalists during the brutal attack, Baqaei described it as a savage war crime by the Zionist regime and part of a plan to commit genocide against the Palestinian people aimed at erasing their national identity, the Foreign Ministry’s website reported.

He slammed as “shameful” the continued inaction of global organizations and the so-called human rights defenders in the face of such gross violations of human rights and humanitarian laws in Gaza and the West Bank.

Baqaei underscored the legal and moral responsibility of all governments to halt genocide and punish the Nazi-like and racist Zionist criminals, saying the Israeli regime’s military and political supporters, particularly the US, must be held accountable by the international community as accomplices in such heinous crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli regime struck Nasser Hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, killing at least 21 people, including five journalists, as well as medics and rescue workers, in the latest deliberate attack on civilians and the besieged enclave’s decimated health system.

The attack, which killed journalists who worked for Al Jazeera, the Reuters and Associated Press (AP) news agencies, and others, was among the deadliest of a multitude of Israeli strikes that have targeted both hospitals and media workers over the course of the nearly two-year genocidal assault.

The first strike of the “double-tap” attack, where one strike is followed by a second soon after, hit the top floor of a building at Nasser Hospital. Minutes later, as journalists and rescuers in orange vests rushed up an external staircase, a second projectile hit, said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, the head of the pediatrics department.

The attack was met with widespread global condemnation, including from press freedom groups and rights advocates, who expressed outrage over Israel’s repeated targeted killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, also decried the attack.

“Rescuers killed in line of duty. Scenes like this unfold every moment in Gaza, often unseen, largely undocumented,” Albanese said.

“I beg states: how much more must be witnessed before you act to stop this carnage? Break the blockade. Impose an Arms Embargo. Impose Sanctions.”