The world is holding its breath today after a devastating attack on a hospital in Gaza left 500 people dead, sparking outrage across the Middle East and bringing the region to the brink of all-out war.
A massive explosion rocked Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City last night as it was being used to treat and house thousands of civilians trying to escape Israel’s relentless airstrikes.
The devastating fireball has sparked a toxic blame game between Hamas and Israel. The terrorists claimed it was the result of an Israeli airstrike, while the IDF blamed Islamic Jihad militants for a misfired rocket.
The hospital strike sparked global outrage. Iran – Israel’s enemy – declared last night that the country’s time was up and the Tehran-backed terror group Hezbollah called for a “day of rage”.
It’s just hours before US President Joe Biden is set to land in Israel for a diplomatic confrontation aimed at preventing the war with Hamas from escalating into an even larger conflict.
But the blast has thrown Biden’s visit to the region into chaos, with a planned meeting between him, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and leaders from Egypt and Jordan canceled by Arab nations in protest.
Children injured in the hospital strike cry as they are treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday
Palestinians at Al-Shifa Hospital mourn the body of a family member after an explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday
An injured man is admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after he was injured in an explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday
Wounded Palestinians wait for treatment at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, after arriving from al-Ahli hospital following an explosion on Tuesday
Wounded Palestinian children lay in al-Shifa hospital after an explosion on Tuesday
A Palestinian medic carries a child injured in the explosion at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday
People inspect the area of Al-Ahli Hospital, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed each other for on Wednesday
The scene of destruction at Al-Ahli Hospital following an explosion in Gaza City on Tuesday. Israeli and Hamas terrorists have blamed each other for the explosion
Pictured: The burning hospital building after the strike on Tuesday evening
This devastating move by Middle Eastern states has cost Biden the opportunity for face-to-face talks that he believes are crucial to navigating this difficult time.
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.
The head of the World Health Organization issued a stark warning today, saying the situation in Gaza is “spinning out of control” while demanding that “violence on all sides cease” so that Israel’s siege is lifted and medical supplies are allowed into the Gaza Strip can become enclave.
“Every second we wait for medical help, we lose lives,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We need immediate access to begin delivering life-saving supplies.”
In the immediate aftermath of the devastating explosion, Hamas called the devastation a “horrific massacre” and a “genocidal crime” and blamed it on Israel. But Israel quickly rejected that claim, instead accusing Hamas of attacking the hospital with a misfired rocket.
The horrific attack has already heightened fears that the Hamas-Israel conflict will engulf the Middle East, with Iran’s foreign minister declaring that Israel’s time is “over.”
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.”
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, arrived in Saudi Arabia later Tuesday evening after the hospital bombing – a remarkable sign of unity between two former arch-enemies.
During his stay, Amir Abdollahian issued a strong warning to Israel, with the foreign minister tweeting: “After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime with the bombing and massacre of more than a thousand innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for…” global unity of humanity against this fake regime, which is even more hated than ISIS and its killing machine. Time is up.’
Justin Bronk, a RUSI analyst, said Iran’s threats and the international outrage sparked by the Gaza hospital attack were deeply troubling in a region already in trouble.
After the hospital strike, anger simmered across the Middle East. Protesters in Beirut, Lebanon, set fire to the US Embassy before security forces fired tear gas at them amid heated clashes.
Angry protesters also poured onto the streets of Turkey and Jordan near Israeli embassies there, while Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse anti-government protesters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
That anger could spill over into Europe as protests are expected in London later today. The head of Britain’s MI5 intelligence service warned that the conflict in Gaza could increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack on British soil.
Palestinian children injured in the blast await treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday
Palestinian children injured in the blast await treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday
Protesters demonstrate outside the Israeli consulate after an explosion at a Gaza hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, killed hundreds of people on Tuesday
A flare fired by protesters landed amid Lebanese security forces at the entrance to the French embassy complex in Beirut early Wednesday
Lebanese gather outside the US Embassy on Wednesday to protest an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip in Beirut, Lebanon
Lebanese gather outside the US Embassy on Wednesday to protest an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip in Beirut, Lebanon
Clashes broke out between demonstrators and police officers during a rally in support of Palestinians in front of the Israeli embassy in Ankara on Wednesday
On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul against an attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip
Protesters demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday after an explosion at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of people in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday
The Israeli military today reiterated its denial of being behind the attack on the hospital and accused Hamas of carrying out the attack. It then added that around 450 rockets fired from Gaza in the last 11 days did not miss and landed inside the Gaza Strip.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of exaggerating the number of casualties caused by the explosion and said it could not know as quickly as it claimed what caused the explosion.
Hagari said at a press conference this morning: “I want to make something clear: it is impossible to know what happened as quickly as Hamas claimed it knew.”
“That should have been a first warning sign for many.” Unlike Hamas, the IDF launched an immediate investigation.”
He added that the military had seen no evidence of a direct attack on the hospital, adding that there was no structural damage to buildings around the building and no craters to indicate an airstrike.
However, the terror group called Israel’s claims “completely false” and accused the IDF of “trying to cover up the terrible crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”
The deadly hospital explosion came just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the “world to unite to defeat Hamas, just as it defeated ISIS and the Nazis,” while warning Iran and Hezbollah “not to put ourselves to the test.”
Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorists and their Iranian backers that they would pay a “heavy price” if they intervened in the conflict and joined Hamas in its war against Israel.
But with Iran and Hezbollah threatening Israel that time is running out following the hospital explosion, fears are growing that the terror group will do just that.
Netanyahu had previously warned that Israel was “approaching a fateful hour” as more than 400,000 Israeli soldiers now prepare for a battle in Gaza, with street fighting erupting in the tiny, 25 mile long enclave in which 1,400 Israelis were killed.
More than a million people have now fled their homes in northern Gaza amid scenes of chaos and desperation in a desperate attempt to escape the impending Israeli invasion and ongoing aerial bombardment of the Hamas-controlled area.
But the United Nations has warned that a “specter of death” looms over Gaza, where millions of people are stranded amid Israel’s total siege that is preventing food, water, medicine and fuel from reaching the enclave.
The enclave’s food and water supplies are running dangerously low and hospitals are warning they are on the verge of collapse. Doctors say health centers are quickly turning into morgues.
Meanwhile, 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.”
Biden will meet Netanyahu and the Israeli War Cabinet to get an idea of Israel’s plans and goals, Kirby said. Biden also wants to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, where millions of Palestinians are making do with scarce food, fuel and water due to the Israeli siege.
“He’s going to ask some tough questions, he’s going to ask them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he’s going to ask them some questions,” Kirby said.
Biden also planned to meet Israeli first responders and the families of the dead and hostages when Hamas invaded Israel.
It was unclear what Biden was able to accomplish during his visit. Kirby said the US president planned to speak with Abbas and Sisi on the way back to Washington.
“This type of dark but terrible event complicates diplomacy and increases the risk of escalation,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group.
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.
These figures are from the period before the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday. No clear cause could be determined for the explosion.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction, but the Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group that also denied responsibility.
Mr. 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.”
Protests erupted in the region following the deaths at the hospital, which had treated wounded Palestinians and housed many others seeking refuge from the fighting.
Doctors stand outside Al-Shifa Hospital, surrounded by a sea of dead children brought from nearby Al-Ahli Hospital after the explosion
A doctor at the scene of an accident at Al-Ahli Hospital following an explosion in Gaza City on Tuesday
Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities, including Ramallah. More people joined the protests that broke out in Beirut, Lebanon, and Amman, Jordan, where angry crowds gathered outside the Israeli embassy.
In Jordan, King Abdullah II had planned to host meetings with Mr. Biden along with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
But Mr Abbas withdrew in protest and the summit was canceled entirely.
Mr Kirby said Jordan had declared three days of mourning following the hospital explosion and that Mr Biden understood the move and was part of a “mutual” decision to cancel the Jordan leg of his trip.
He said Mr. Biden would have an opportunity to speak by telephone with Arab leaders when he returns to Washington.
Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, told a state television channel that the war was “bringing the region to the brink.”
There are also fears that a new front could break out along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah is fighting with Israeli forces.
Mr Biden’s trip will test the limits of US influence in the Middle East at a volatile time. It is his second trip to a conflict zone this year, after visiting Ukraine in February.
The visit to Israel coincides with increasing humanitarian concerns in Gaza, where Israel has cut off the flow of food, fuel and water.
Mediators have struggled to break a logjam in supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.