Iran’s foreign minister declared on Tuesday that “time has run out” for Israel as Joe Biden arrived in Tel Aviv to try to calm a rapidly deteriorating situation in which anti-Israel protests have flared across the region.
An airstrike on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday evening that Palestinian authorities said killed at least 500 people angered people around the world. Israel and Palestinians blame each other for the atrocity.
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group based in Lebanon, called for a “day of unprecedented rage” against Israel, while the Libyan Foreign Ministry accused the Jewish state of “war crimes and genocide.”
Protesters in Beirut briefly set the U.S. Embassy on fire out of anger over the killings, and in Amman dozens of protesters tried to storm the Israeli embassy. There were also protests in front of the British and French embassies in Tehran.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday after the hospital bombing – a remarkable sign of unity between two former arch-enemies.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is seen arriving in Jeddah for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Tuesday
⚡️⚡️⚡️ 🇮🇷 Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian has arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦.
What Iran 🇮🇷 and Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 decide could have a huge impact on how the world changes in the next 72 hours. pic.twitter.com/lyccZQjNxj
– Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) October 18, 2023
The Iranian embassy in Syria tweeted on Tuesday evening: “Time is up”
Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed in March on a détente brokered by China and have taken steps to reopen diplomatic missions in each other’s countries: Amir-Abdollahian visited Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in August.
On Tuesday, Amir-Abdollahian made a strong threat to Israel at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, blaming Israel for the hospital bombing.
“After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than a thousand innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this false regime, hated even more than ISIS and its killing machine. “‘ he tweeted.
‘Time is up.’
The Iranian embassy in Syria also tweeted in Hebrew and Arabic: “Time is up.”
Justin Bronk, a RUSI analyst, said Iran’s threats were deeply disturbing.
Russia and China have been relatively cautious so far, he argued, but if Iran gets involved, then Russia could support it – and the war could involve the US if Iran or its proxies attack Israel in the coming weeks.
Support for the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and one way the Shiite-dominated country has established itself as the leader of the Muslim world.
Tehran says it provides moral and financial support to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, but Western intelligence agencies do not believe Tehran staged the Oct. 7 attack.
In response to Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed 1,400 Israelis, Israel is preparing for a possible ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Iran immediately blamed Israel for the attack on the Gaza hospital. Nasser Kanani, a State Department spokesman, called it a “cruel war crime” and a case of “genocide.”
Kan’ani accused Israel of committing a “bestial and horrific crime,” adding, according to state press television, “The Zionist regime has once again shown its cruel and evil nature to the entire people of the world.”
During clashes between protesters and security forces outside the US Embassy in Beirut, people stand in front of the fire that broke out outside the security gate
Lebanese protesters wave Palestinian national flags and shout slogans in solidarity with the people of Gaza in downtown Beirut following an attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip
A Lebanese protester shows the V sign for Victory as a fire rages behind the security gate of the US Embassy
Clashes break out between demonstrators and Lebanese security forces during a demonstration in front of the US Embassy
Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was hit at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
Palestinian officials say the horrific explosion was caused by an airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), while officials in the Jewish state insisted it was the result of a “failed” rocket launch by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.
However, the terror group called the claims “completely false” and accused the IDF of “trying to cover up the terrible crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”
The explosion plunged a visit by US President Joe Biden to the region – hoping to show support for Israel and prevent an expansion of the war – into chaos.
A planned meeting between him, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and leaders from Egypt and Jordan was canceled by Arab nations in protest.
Washington is deeply concerned by Tehran’s comments and has called on Iran to stay out of the war.
The Pentagon has sent two U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle groups to the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce that message of deterrence.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden “wants to get a sense from the Israelis about the situation on the ground” and will “ask some tough questions.”
“He’ll ask her as a friend,” Kirby said.
The president also planned to meet with Israeli first responders and the families of those killed and hostages in Hamas’ invasion of Israel.
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip reportedly killed around 2,800 Palestinians.
According to health authorities, another 1,200 people are believed to be buried alive or dead under the rubble.
Biden said in a statement that he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted.”
He also said he had “instructed my national security team to continue gathering information about exactly what happened.”
Doctors stand outside Al-Shifa Hospital, surrounded by a sea of dead children brought from nearby Al-Ahli Hospital after the explosion
At least 500 people have been killed in an explosion said to have been caused by an Israeli airstrike, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip
Unconfirmed photos circulating on social media showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area
Children, women and hospitalized patients were among those injured in the explosion. Pictured: A child at al-Shifa Hospital after the fireball at al-Ahli Hospital
The bodies of those killed in the explosion were covered with white sheets and placed in tents by the dozens
A blood-soaked Palestinian woman holds a child as she waits for treatment after the explosion at al-Shifa hospital
A hellish video shot from the hospital housing around 6,000 Palestinians and funded by the Anglican Church shows the fire engulfing the building and dozens of bodies scattered on the ground, including many young children.
Ambulances and private cars brought about 350 victims of the explosion in al-Ahli to Gaza City’s main hospital, al-Shifa, which was already overflowing with wounded from other attacks, its director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
“We squeeze five beds into one tiny room. “We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need everything,” Abu Selmia said, warning that fuel supplies for the hospital’s generators would run out on Wednesday.
“I think the medical sector in Gaza will collapse within a few hours.”
At a news conference in al-Shifa, doctors stood amid a sea of dead children brought from the stricken hospital, holding some of their faces up to the cameras to show the horror that had befallen them.
In the immediate aftermath, Hamas called the devastation a “horrible massacre” and a “genocidal crime” and blamed it on Israel.
Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior Hamas member, said: “There are dozens of dismembered and crushed bodies, bloodbaths.”
The Israeli military blamed the blast on Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often works with Hamas in its joint fight against Israel.
A military statement said that “a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in the immediate vicinity of Ahli Hospital in Gaza at the time of impact.”
An IDF spokesman added: “Information we have from multiple sources indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital in Gaza.”
The Israeli army said earlier Tuesday that a hospital was a “highly sensitive building” and “not an IDF target” and urged “everyone to exercise caution when reporting unconfirmed claims of a terrorist organization.”
This was confirmed by Justin Bronk, a senior air force and technology researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, who said the video of the explosion did not correspond to the type of weapons Israel normally uses.
He wrote on Twitter: “To me this doesn’t look and sound quite like an airstrike with the typical IAF 1000lb or 2000lb JDAM/Mk80 series.” The incoming projectile sounds like it’s powered and the explosion images are visible mostly look like fuel fires rather than HE [high explosive] Detonation…’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The whole world should know: it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza who attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF.” “Those who brutally murdered our children are also murdering their own children .”
An injured man is carried out of hospital while others are taken from the hospital by paramedics following the attack
A Palestinian woman cries while holding her child at the hospital in Gaza City after the explosion
Following the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday, scores of injured people are being taken to Al-Shifa Hospital
An injured toddler is carried by what appears to be a medic after an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday
People gather on Tuesday around the bodies of those killed in the devastation at the hospital
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh also blamed the United States for the attack, saying in a televised address late Tuesday that Washington had given Israel “cover for its aggression.”
“The hospital massacre confirms the brutality of the enemy and the extent of his sense of defeat,” he said, adding that the attack would mark “a new turning point.”
Haniyeh called on the entire Palestinian people to “come out and oppose the occupation and the settlers.” He also called on all Arabs and Muslims to protest against Israel.
Mark Regev, senior adviser to Netanyahu, told the BBC that Israel “will not intentionally target a hospital.”
He said: “My information that I have just received from the highest authorities … suggests that these were not Israeli orders, but rather that it was a Hamas rocket that missed.”
Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also called for protests in front of Israeli embassies around the world after the hospital explosion.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing stones and chanting against Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the explosion.
Witnesses said there were clashes with Palestinian security forces late Tuesday in several other cities in the West Bank, which is ruled by Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing stones and chanting against Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the explosion
Clashes broke out between people and Palestinian security forces during a solidarity rally with Gaza Strip’s Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday
Protesters flooded the streets of Ramallah on Tuesday evening in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Clashes broke out between demonstrators and Palestinian security forces during a rally in Ramallah on Tuesday evening
Hundreds of people joined the protests that broke out in Beirut and Amman, where angry crowds gathered outside the Israeli embassy.
And in Tunisia, hundreds gathered outside the French embassy to brand the European country – which has “strongly” condemned the attack – and the US as “allies of the Zionists”.
The carnage came as the US tried to persuade Israel to allow aid to be delivered to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which has been under complete siege since Hamas’ deadly rampage in southern Israel.