Iran calls for int'l action against Israel's "genocidal crime" in Gaza

TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Thursday called on governments and international organizations to fulfill their "human, legal and historical responsibility" and take action to stop Israel's "genocidal crime" against Palestinians in Gaza.

He made the remarks in a post on social media platform X, citing as proof of Israel's "genocidal crime" in Gaza a report titled "Anatomy of a Genocide" presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Tuesday by Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel's "genocidal crime against the Palestinians has now been confirmed and asserted by the special rapporteur at the UNHRC," Kanaani said, stressing, "Now governments and international political and legal assemblies and institutions are not only subject to the judgment of the world public opinion, but also to the judgment of history."

A total of 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and over 74,980 others were injured in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its offensive against Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The conflict began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which claimed the lives of around 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 people as hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.

Condemning Israel's attacks against medical centers in Gaza in another post on X on Wednesday, Kanaani said the war against hospitals in the Gaza Strip was a "tragic and painful part of the process of the war crimes" of the Israeli army against the people of the coastal enclave.

He added official reports said that since the outbreak of the war against Gaza, Israel had made "33 hospitals completely unable to provide medical services."