TEHRAN- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has strongly criticized Israel’s airstrike on a church in the beleaguered Gaza Strip that was housing displaced Palestinians.

Nasser Kanaani said in a post on X on Friday that the attack is another “disgraceful” crime committed by Israeli forces in Gaza, referring to previous Israeli fatal strike on al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital, where the injured people and those fleeing Israeli bombardments had taken refuge.

“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,” Kanaani asserted.

Such attacks demonstrate that the usurping Zionist regime doesn’t abide by any humanitarian, moral, and religious values and principles as well as international norms and regulations, the ministry spokesman pointed out.

He also blamed the U.S. and a few European nations, who are strong allies of Tel Aviv, for the atrocities that the Israeli regime is committing.

All religions condemn the “horrific crime,” he added, emphasizing the “international responsibility” to chronicle the atrocities and bring the “Zionist criminals and their known supporters” to account.

As Israeli bombings on Gaza continued on Thursday, many Christians and Muslims sought sanctuary in the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church.

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.

'Crime similar to what Daesh has done’

Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister of Iran, also denounced the strike 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.

After the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, carried out the unexpected Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel on October 7 in reaction to the regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians, Israel declared war on Gaza.

In the time since the Israeli attack began, thousands of Palestinians have lost their lives.

At least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in Gaza in Israeli strikes since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday in a statement, according to Reuters.

Additionally, Tel Aviv has cut off Gaza’s access to food, water, and power, resulting in a humanitarian crisis throughout the coastal strip.

1.1 million residents of Gaza’s northern region have been given orders by the regime to leave and relocate south of the sliver coastal strip.

But it hasn’t stopped dropping bombs on the south, killing a lot of Palestinians.

The United Nations said that about half of the Palestinians in Gaza have been made homeless, still trapped inside the besieged strip.

Based on the UN human rights office, Israel’s total blockade of Gaza along with the evacuation order could amount to a forced relocation of residents in violation of international law.

In a phone conversation with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler on Friday, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri warned about the U.S. for delivering arms to the Israeli regime for use against the Palestinian people, saying the weapon supplies to the regime would “further complicate the situation”.

The two military officials discussed the escalation of tensions in the Gaza Strip.

General Bagheri stressed that Israel’s actions and desecration of holy places in Palestine have exacerbated the tensions. “Serious action should be taken to prevent the continuation of the Zionist regime's brutal attacks on civilians in Gaza and to provide them with humanitarian aid, including food and medicine,” the top Iranian general said.

General Bagheri considered the extensive support of the U.S., including the provision of weapons and heavy ammunition for the Zionist regime, as the participation of the U.S. in the crimes of the Zionist regime against Palestinians. He warned about the consequences of such a complicity.

He also asked the Turkish government to use everything in its power to prevent the continuation of crimes and support the people of Gaza.

For his part, the Turkish defense minister elaborated on the actions of the Ankara government to reduce tension and stop conflicts, emphasizing that his country will continue these efforts.