In an unprecedented large attack, at least 500 people have been killed and many more wounded in an Israeli air attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials have said.
This is what we know about the attack so far.
What Palestine says
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza: “The Isreali forces bombed the Baptist Hospital (Al Ahli) in Gaza which caused hundreds of killed and wounded civilians”.
It was later found that 500 people were killed, by far the highest death toll of any single incident in Gaza during the current war between Israel and Hamas.
The ministry said the hospital sheltered thousands of citizens who were forced to flee from the north of Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, spokesman of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dr.Ashraf al-Qudra said most of the victims of the hospital bombing are women and children.
“The sudden increase of hundreds of victims with complex injuries far exceeded the capabilities of medical crews and ambulances,” said al-Qudra, adding that due to the volume of injured patients and the urgency of their care, doctors were performing surgeries on the floor and corridors of the hospital.
Most of the surgeries were done without any anaesthetic.
Al-Qudra said a large number of patients still require urgent surgery and is believed that hundreds of patients are expected to die within hours due to the lack of medical supplies, water and electricity to operate the hospital.
Evacuation process is still ongoing.
What Israel says
On the other hand, Israel said the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group.
The PIJ has denied the serious allegation, saying Israel is trying to “evade responsibility for the brutal massacre”.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that according to “analysis of IDF operational systems”, the rockets were “fired by terrorists in Gaza”.
He added that according to “intelligence from multiple sources”, the Islamic Jihad (or sometimes known as PIJ) is responsible for the “failed rocket launch” which hit the hospital.
He doubled down, in what appeared to be a response to those rejecting his statement saying: “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.”
What UN says
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the bombing.
Guterres said he had appealed to Hamas for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and to Israel to allow immediate unrestricted access to humanitarian aid for Gaza.
What the world leaders and global community say
World leaders have denounced the bombing and citizens in various countries took to the streets in protest.
There are also questions raised about the bomb as according to The Palestine Chronicle and people on the ground, no one in the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza has bombs with this kind of destructive capabilities.
Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt, who were expected to attend a summit in Amman with United States President Joe Biden have condemned the attack.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the meeting should be held at a time when attendees could agree to work towards ending the “war and the massacres against Palestinians”.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms Israel’s bombardment” of the Gaza hospital.
Saudi Arabia condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attack.
Western countries weighed in with US President Joe Biden expressing his condolences and the French President Emmanuel Macron saying in a social media post that “nothing can justify a strike against a hospital.”
Doctors without Borders released a statement, calling the attack a massacre. They said nothing justifies the attack and that hospitals are not a target. Doctors without Borders called on the bloodshed to stop.
“We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room. This is a massacre,” says Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, MSF doctor in Gaza.
IOL
