Gaza, massacre in the bombed hospital

There are several hundred victims of the bombing of the hospital in Gaza. «Over 500 dead and hundreds more injured among civilians who were being treated or had taken refuge in the premises of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City”, according to spokesmen from the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, who said the explosion was caused by an air raid Israeli.

The death toll is by far the highest of any single attack occurred in Gaza during this conflict between Israel and Hamas. The hospital, located in central Gaza, is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and was hit as it was packed with thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter from brutal Israeli airstrikes.

Responsibilities

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on social media, wrote that «an analysis of the operational systems of the IDF, the Israeli army, indicates that a barrage of rockets was launched by terrorists in Gaza, passing close to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit. The information coming from multiple sources we have in hand indicate that Islamic Jihad is responsible of the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital in Gaza.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad rejected the accusation with a statement: «The Zionist enemy is doing its best to evade its responsibility for the brutal massacre committed by bombing the hospital in Gaza through its usual fabrication of lies and pointing the finger at the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine. We therefore affirm that the accusations made by the enemy are false and unfounded.”

A unanimous condemnation

Protests have erupted across the Middle East, including in Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jordan has canceled a planned summit in the capital Amman with US President Joe Biden and Arab leaders: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the meeting would be held at a time when all those present could agree to work to end the “war and massacres against Palestinians.”

The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was supposed to attend the summit, condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the bombing of the Gaza hospital. Saudi Arabia also issued a strong statement condemning the “heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces by bombing the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.”

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the attack with a statement on social media. «Striking a hospital housing innocent women, children and civilians is the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values. I call on all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza.”

The French president Emmanuel Macron, in a post on social media, stated that “nothing can justify a bombing of a hospital” and that “we need to shed light on the circumstances”. In a statement, Biden expressed his “deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the Gaza hospital explosion.”

Also the WHO “Strongly condemns the attack on the Al Ahli Arab hospital,” said the director general of the United Nations health agency Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a post on X, adding that initial reports indicate “hundreds of dead and injured”. “We demand the immediate protection of civilians, health care and the lifting of evacuation orders.”

“I am horrified by the news of the deaths and injuries of children and women following last night’s attack on Al Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip,” she declares the director general of Unicef ​​Catherine Russell. “While details are still emerging and bodies are still being counted, the images from the field are devastating. What happened underlines the deadly impact the ongoing war is having on children and families. In just 11 days, hundreds of children have tragically lost their lives – not counting today’s deaths – and thousands more have been injured, as well as more than 300,000 children displaced from their homes. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, are unacceptable and must stop immediately.”