Iran urges Muslim countries to sanction Israel after Gaza hospital strike

Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors over a deadly strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Amirabdollahian’s remarks came in a statement on Wednesday amid an emergency OIC meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The foreign minister calls for an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the ministry said.

Amirabdollahian also called for the formation of a team of Islamic lawyers to document potential war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.

Iran has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

On Tuesday night, an Israeli air raid on a hospital in Gaza killed about 500 people, according to Palestinians, in one of the worst attacks since the violence began on October 7.

Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, said on Wednesday that hundreds were killed and rescue workers were still removing bodies from the rubble.

Pro-Palestinian protests erupted throughout the Middle East and North Africa following the attack and were staged at Israeli embassies in Jordan as well as Turkey and near the US embassy in Lebanon.

Demonstrations also took place in Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen and Iraq.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled a summit with his US counterpart and said the hospital blast was a “hideous war massacre” and that “Israel has crossed on red lines”.

But Israel’s military has denied responsibility for the attack and claimed a misfired Palestinian rocket hit the hospital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The entire world should know: it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, not the IDF [Israeli forces].”

“Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children,” he said.

Health authorities in Gaza have said at least 3,300 people have died during the 11-day conflict, and a further 13,000 people have been wounded.

In Israel, the death toll stands at 1,400, with 4,475 injured.