TEHRAN - The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday denounced the anti-human and "abhorrent" crimes of the Israeli army against medical staff, patients, the injured and displaced Palestinians in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

 “It is for a week that al-Shifa Hospital and its surrounding areas along with patients, medical staff and the Palestinian refugees, especially women and children who have taken shelter there, are under tough and anti-human siege of the terrorist army of the Zionist regime, and the mentioned regime, by committing 'abhorrent' crimes in this hospital, has added another shameful chapter to the history of its miserable existence and the dark list of its crimes,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in the statement. 

“In addition to the shocking and abhorrent reports, there are news of torture, rape and killing of the trapped women in this hospital, and this entails urgent and decisive action by the global community, including forming an international fact-finding mission to expose the volume of the war crimes of Zionists at al-Shifa Hospital,” the Foreign Ministry official stated.

He added, “The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for effective, decisive and urgent action by governments and legal and international organizations to stop these crimes and to form criminal cases to prosecute and try the perpetrators, agents and supporters of this humanitarian catastrophe.”