Iran condemns Gaza hospital carnage, announces day of public mourning

Speaking on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani denounced as “bestial and appalling” the Israeli regime attack on al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital announcing Wednesday a day of public mourning across the country.

Speaking on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani denounced the massacre as a "savage war crime" and an instance of "genocide."

By perpetrating this "bestial and appalling crime, the Zionist regime once again showed its ferocious and vicious nature to the entire people of the world," he said.

The regime "proved that it does not commit in the least bit to the principles and rules of the international law that govern the wartime."

Earlier in the day, at least 500 civilians, mainly women and children, were killed by Israeli airstrikes on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital amid a relentless war by the regime on the besieged Gaza Strip, the territory's health ministry said.

The actual death toll could be far higher since, according to the ministry, "hundreds of victims are still under the rubble."

The strikes came while thousands of civilians were seeking medical treatment and shelter at the hospital from incessant Israeli airstrikes.

The war had already killed thousands of people, including hundreds of women and children.

Kan'ani extended the Iranian government and nation's most heartfelt condolences to the Palestinian nation and resistance, saying the atrocity would further resolve the oppressed people of Palestine to "stand up for the liberation of their land" from occupation.

He urged the international community, especially the United Nations and the world body's Security Council, to act upon their duty towards expeditious examination of the aspects of this war crime and prosecution of the Israeli criminals behind it.

Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, also denounced the atrocity, condemning the Israeli regime for "perpetrating full-fledged ethnic and racial cleansing" in Gaza.