Iran condemns Israeli attack on Gaza church as “disgraceful crime”

In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Nasser Kan’ani said on Friday the attack is another “disgraceful” crime committed by the Israeli forces in Gaza, referring to the previous Israeli fatal strikes on al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital and many mosques, where people displaced by the Israeli aggression have sought sanctuary.

“It’s another black and disgraceful episode in a series of crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Zionist regime and its criminal political and military leaders,” Kan’ani said.

On Thursday, Israel bombed the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church where many Christians and Muslims had taken refuge amid intensified Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

According to reports, at least 16 people have been killed in the airstrike which the Israeli regime claims was meant to target a neighboring building.

Kan’ani noted that such attacks prove that “the usurping Zionist regime doesn’t abide by any humanitarian, moral and religious values and principles as well as the international norms and regulations.”

The spokesman also held Tel Aviv’s staunch supporters, the United States and some European countries, responsible for the crimes committed by the Israeli regime.

The human conscience and all religions slam the "horrific crime," he said, stressing the "international responsibility" to document the crimes and bring the "Zionist criminals and their known supporters" to justice.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also slammed the attack as the "latest crime of the occupying apartheid regime."

"The savage act of the hated regime in aggression, desecration of divine religions, and attacks against historic and cultural heritage is like that of terrorist groups such as Daesh," he wrote on X in a Friday.

Since the start of the Israeli aggression, more than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed.