The bombing of a hospital in Gaza City killed at least 500 people on Tuesday evening, October 17, sparking strong reactions abroad on the eleventh day of the war triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack against Israel.
The Islamist movement in power in Gaza accused Israel of being behind the attack, but the Israeli army strongly denies this and attributes the bombing to a rocket attack by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group affiliated with Hamas is allied.
“According to intelligence information based on multiple sources we have received, Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket attack on the hospital,” the IDF said in a statement. “We will provide evidence of our claims in the coming hours,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said during a news conference later that night.
“At the time of the shooting, we were not conducting air operations near the hospital and the missiles that hit the building did not match ours,” he said, adding that the army would also “provide the conversations in Arabic that point out.” It is the Islamic Jihad that was responsible for the shooting.
Islamic Jihad called Israel’s accusations “lies.” “As usual, the Zionist enemy is trying to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre he committed by inventing lies by bombing the hospital and pointing the finger at Islamic Jihad,” said a press release Palestinian Islamist movement. According to him, the evacuation of the hospital was ordered by Israel under the threat of a bomb attack
Demonstrations in the Muslim world
According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory, “hundreds of victims still lie in the rubble” of the Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza, where 500 people died.
“We were undergoing surgery in the hospital, there was a loud explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room. “It’s a massacre,” explained Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, doctor at Doctors Without Borders, in a press release from the NGO.
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The announcement of the attack on this hospital, where many people in the Gaza Strip sought refuge to escape Israeli bombing, sparked outrage around the world. The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, which manages the affected hospital, condemned a “brutal” attack that occurred “during Israeli attacks” and denounced a “crime against humanity.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets in Amman, Beirut, Tehran, Baghdad and Istanbul. In Tunis, more than 3,000 people gathered in front of the French embassy and criticized Paris as an ally of Israel.
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Clashes broke out in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday evening between demonstrators demanding the departure of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his security forces.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, called for a “day of rage” on Wednesday. The call was launched as clashes broke out between Lebanese security forces and protesters who had gathered outside the US Embassy in Awkar in the northern suburbs of the capital Beirut, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”. .
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American President Joe Biden, due in Israel on Wednesday, spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan “immediately after the news” of the attack on the hospital. Mr. Biden said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion” and “the terrible losses that resulted from it.” He also said he had asked his advisers to “continue gathering information about exactly what happened.”
Jordan summit postponed indefinitely
For its part, Jordan has indefinitely postponed the quadrilateral summit that was scheduled to bring together the American president and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in Amman on Wednesday. The meeting will take place “when the decision is made to end the war and put an end to these massacres,” said Jordanian diplomatic chief Ayman Safadi, who blamed Israel for the shooting.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the “hundreds of Palestinian civilians killed in an attack” on the hospital, which he “strongly condemned” but without attributing responsibility to anyone. He also believed that the Hamas attack in Israel “is not working.” [pouvait] Justify the collective punishment of Palestinians.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the hospital strike, stressing that “nothing can justify attacks on civilians.” He also called for access to the Gaza Strip to be opened “immediately” to humanitarian aid.
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The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, regretted that “innocent civilians are once again paying the highest price.” “Responsibility for this crime must be made clear and the perpetrators must be held accountable,” he wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In the Arab world, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi strongly condemned “the Israeli bombing” of the hospital, which resulted in the “death of hundreds of innocent victims” among Palestinian citizens. He called this “deliberate bombing” a “clear violation of international law.” Saudi Arabia condemned a “violation of all international laws and standards” and condemned Israel’s continuation of “attacks against civilians.”
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the Cairo-based Arab League, on Tuesday called on “the West to immediately end the tragedy in Gaza.” “Our Arab mechanisms identify war crimes and their perpetrators will not be able to escape justice,” he warned.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi blamed Israel and declared a “public day of mourning” on Wednesday, predicting that the attack on the hospital would backfire against Israel and its American ally. “The flames of the American-Israeli bombs dropped this evening on the injured Palestinian victims in the hospital (…) in Gaza will soon engulf the Zionists,” Mr. Raïssi declared.
According to the WHO, “111 medical infrastructures” were bombed
The Jewish state has been bombing the Gaza Strip daily since the war began on October 7, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack against Israel that left more than 1,400 dead and 199 hostages, according to the Israeli army Movement. According to local authorities, Israeli attacks have already claimed more than 3,000 lives, mostly civilians, including hundreds of children.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) had already identified “111 medical infrastructures” as the target, “12 medical workers killed and 60 ambulances as targets” in Gaza on Monday. At least six people seeking refuge in a UN school were also killed in an Israeli attack on Tuesday, according to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
There are also shortages of water and food for the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, who also have no electricity after Israel laid siege on Oct. 9 to the small Palestinian territory, which has already been subject to land, sea and water since Hamas seized power Air blockade in 2007.