Gaza Strip: A massive blast on Tuesday rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds of people.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said that at least 500 people were killed in the blast.
Meanwhile, Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, but the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.
Biden’ Outraged And Deeply Saddened’ By Hospital Blast
The White House canceled a regional summit in Amman that Vice President Biden was due to attend on Wednesday with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as resentment over the hospital carnage swept around the region. Now, he will only travel to Israel.
The region is on the verge of collapse due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The al-Ahli Hospital was destroyed by fire after the explosion, and many young children’s remains were scattered around the hospital’s grounds.
In the tiny Gaza Strip, under a total embargo ever since Hamas’ deadly rampage in southern Israel, hundreds of thousands of people were looking for bread and water as Israel halted delivering supplies to helpless civilians, humanitarian organizations, and hospitals.
According to Hamas, the hospital explosion on Tuesday was a horrifying atrocity.
Israel Denies Involvement In Gaza City Hospital Bombing
The Israeli military blamed a lesser, more extreme branch of Hamas called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the military, the organization fired a volley of rockets near the hospital, and “intelligence from multiple sources” suggested the group was to blame.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:
“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF.
Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 17, 2023
Since the start of the conflict, approximately 450 rockets fired against Israel by militant organizations have landed in Gaza, putting the lives of Gazan citizens in peril.
Islamic Jihad rejected the charges and charged Israel with valiant efforts to avoid responsibility for the horrific killing.
Arab Countries At UN Demand Immediate Cease-fire
Following the horrific explosion and fire at a hospital in Gaza City, the 22 Arab nations represented at the UN united in calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
After Israel ordered all city residents and those in the surrounding areas to leave for the southern Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians sought sanctuary in al-Ahli and other hospitals in Gaza City in recent days in the hope that they would escape shelling.
Three hundred fifty victims of the al-Ahli explosion were transported by ambulances and private vehicles to Gaza City’s main hospital, which was already overflowing with patients hurt in prior attacks.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, however, resulted in at least 2,778 fatalities and 9,700 injuries. Another 1,200 individuals are reportedly buried under the debris in Gaza, either alive or dead.
Over 1,400 people have died in Israel, the majority of them civilians killed in the attack by Hamas on October 7. Additionally, 200 people were captured in Gaza due to the attack. Since then, Hamas militants in Gaza have fired rockets daily at cities throughout Israel.
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