IRIA News

A deadly attack at a hospital in Gaza has killed at least 500 Palestinians, prompting protests across the Middle East and North Africa region, and regional countries blaming Israel for the barbaric attack.

At least 500 people were reported while many victims are still under the rubble, the Palestinian authorities said, blaming Israeli forces for the attack at al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, 2023. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said “hundreds” of people had been killed.

Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was sheltering and treating thousands of displaced Palestinians who were trying to avoid Israeli bombing in Gaza. There were gruesome scenes at the hospital. The videos shared on social media showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children.

In a video shared on X shows a doctor testified about what he witnessed following the attack on the Gaza hospital. “You can see all the dead bodies behind me, all the casualties. They tried to find a safe place in the only Christian hospital in Gaza. They tried to find shelter and they have been attacked by barbaric bombardment,” he said.

This is the deadliest incident in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive on the strip in response to an October 7 attack by Hamas. The bombing of the hospital is one of the many violations of the UN resolutions that Israeli forces have committed in recent times including depriving the sieged Gazans of water, food, and electricity.

The hospital bombing has significantly worsened the ongoing catastrophe, further intensifying the crisis in a region already reeling from the sudden Hamas attack on October 7 and the Israeli retaliatory airstrikes. The Hamas attack claimed the lives of 1,300 Israelis while the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have resulted in the tragic loss of over 3,000 Palestinian lives.

Many world leaders and humanitarian organizations have raised concerns over Israel’s actions in the region, which Tel Aviv justifies by relating to the retaliation for the attacks conducted by Hamas.

Reaction

The targeting of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza is a “hideous war massacre” that cannot be tolerated, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said. Abbas canceled his scheduled meeting this week with President Biden following the attack.

The hospital bombing came as the U.S. President Joe Biden was en route to Israel. Biden was scheduled to attend a meeting with Egyptian, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders in Amman, which has now been canceled. Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi said that Jordan was no longer holding a planned summit as “there is no use in talking now about anything except stopping the war”.

The White House also confirmed that Joe Biden would no longer travel to Jordan. In a statement issued before he arrived in Tel Aviv, Biden said he was “deeply saddened” by the “explosion” and had asked his national security team to “continue gathering information about what exactly happened”.

The UN Secretary-General said he was horrified by the killing of hundreds of civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza. António Guterres strongly condemned the strike, adding that his heart is with the families of those who died.

I am horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza today, which I strongly condemn. My heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 17, 2023

Palestinians and Israel trade blame

Palestinians and Israel blamed each other for the attack. Palestinians blamed the Israeli airstrike for the “massacre” at the hospital while Israel accused the blast on a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which denied responsibility. Hamas called the hospital attack “a horrific massacre,” saying it was caused by an Israeli strike.

Following the international outrage, Israeli officials denied attacking the hospital and instead blamed it on Palestinian militant groups. “We did not strike that, and that the intelligence that we have suggests that it was a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad, and I want to add, categorically, that we do not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, and definitely not hospitals,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a statement.

However, some media sources have reported that there was no evidence for Israeli claims and that Palestinian rockets are not large enough to do this much damage. The director of the Gaza Baptist Hospital claimed that prior to the bombing, Israeli officials told them: “We warned you yesterday with two bombs. Why have you not evacuated the hospital until this moment?”

Gaza needs vital humanitarian support, which is also blocked by the Israeli forces. Despite a global diplomatic push from the U.S. and other regional leaders, to open the border crossing, Israeli forces have blocked the efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which is the only Gazans’ last hope to escape Israel’s raging war.

Rage and protests across the region

The Gaza hospital explosion has deepened tensions and sparked protests in the Middle East region and beyond.

In Lebanon, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with Lebanese security forces outside the U.S. embassy in Awkar, near Beirut. The protesters chanted slogans like “death to America” and “death to Israel.” Similar protests occurred at the French embassy in Beirut and the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan.

In Tehran, protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies, shouting “Death to France and England” and throwing eggs at the French embassy’s walls.

Jordanians storm the Israeli embassy in Amman to denounce Israel’s brutal massacre against Al-Mamdani Hospital in Gaza, in which hundreds of civilians were murdered. pic.twitter.com/DSAY7zLyJZ

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) October 17, 2023

In Jordan’s capital, Amman, protesters attempted to storm the Israeli embassy and demanded the government close the embassy and revoke a peace treaty with Israel.

Protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul. Demonstrations also took place in Libya, Yemen, Morocco, and Iraq.

NEW: Thousands of people demonstrate outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul following the reports that a hospital in Gaza Strip was bombed by Israel pic.twitter.com/YEh99ygVod

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 17, 2023

Late on Tuesday, clashes erupted between Palestinian security forces and protesters in West Bank cities, which is ruled by the Palestinian Authority. The outbreak of West Bank protests spotlighted tensions and anger against Abbas, who has faced criticism for coordinating with Israel on security in the territory.

Global outrage and condemnation

The recent attack on the hospital in Gaza has gathered a strong reaction from the Arab leaders and world leaders alike. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the air raid as an act of “genocide” and a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

Leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and Iran also released statements condemning the attack in strong words. Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that international leaders must “stop this tragedy immediately” in response to the attack.

“What diabolical mind intentionally bombards a hospital and its defenseless inhabitants?” he wrote in a social media post, saying that “Arab mechanisms will document these war crimes and the criminals will not get away with their actions.”

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the blast at the hospital in Gaza was “the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values”.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion” and “the terrible loss of life that resulted”. 

I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted. Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national…

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 17, 2023

The World Health Organization also condemned the attack. “WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital”, the UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform, adding that early reports indicate “hundreds of deaths and injuries”. “We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health care, and for the evacuation orders to be reversed,” he added.

EU chief Charles Michel said that targeting civilian infrastructure in Gaza breaks international law. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell later said on social media that “the news coming from the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza add horror to the tragedy unfolding before our eyes since days.”

German Channel Olaf Scholz, who was the first European leader to visit Israel to show solidarity after the Hamas attack, said that he was “horrified” to see the images of the hospital blast. “Innocent civilians were injured and killed,” he said in a social media post, calling for a “thorough investigation”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack “horrific” and stressed that “international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases. There are rules around wars and it’s not acceptable to hit a hospital”.

Multiple thousands marching at emergency Montréal protest against bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital & Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza pic.twitter.com/sqxSMndMc8

— Yves Engler (@EnglerYves) October 17, 2023