An Israeli airstrike at Al-Ahli Baptist hospital building in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed at least 500 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, leaving the hospital building – overwhelmed with civilians taking shelter – engulfed in fire, its grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. The grass around them was scattered with blankets, school backpacks and other belongings. The wounded were laid onto bloody floors, screaming in pain.
Located in central Gaza, the hospital, which is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, was struck while it was sheltering thousands of Palestinians who were seeking refuge amid a barrage of brutal Israeli air attacks across much of the besieged Gaza Strip, that was triggered after an attack by Hamas on October 7. The hospital was already running dangerously low on supplies to treat thousands of wounded civilians. After the attack, the hospital’s director Mohammed Abu Selmia said, “We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need anesthesia, we need everything.”
The staggering loss of lives in just one airstrike has triggered anger and protests across the Arab world, on the same day that US President Joe Biden would be meeting his Israeli counterpart to extend support to the nation.
While the Israeli military blamed Palestine Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often works with Hamas for the attack, the health ministry in Gaza pointed towards an Israeli air raid.
However, multiple media reports said that hours before an official statement from the chief army spokesperson in Israel, a prominent social media influencer who serves in the Israeli military’s ‘digital war’ team, had termed the bombing as a successful strike against a “Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital” by the Israeli Air Force. The tweet was deleted later, presumably in the wake of the scale of the civilian deaths that came to the fore hours after the attack, according to a report by The Wire.
Israel’s evacuation order
Around six days ago, on October 12, the Israeli military had ordered the evacuation of the al-Ahli Baptist hospital within 24 hours “or be responsible for the consequences”. Twenty-two other hospitals in northern Gaza received the same warnings by the military, sparking swift condemnation from the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies.
“As the United Nation’s agency responsible for public health, the World Health Organization strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2000 inpatients in northern Gaza,” the WHO said in a statement. “The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”
On the same day the WHO issued this statement, which also called on Israel to rescind its evacuation order, Israeli rocket fire hit the al-Ahli hospital, injuring four, according to a statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican church.
“Hospitals and patients in Gaza are in grave danger. The seriously ill and injured patients at the Anglican-run Ahli Hospital – and other healthcare facilities in northern Gaza – cannot be safely evacuated. They are running low on medical supplies. They are facing catastrophe,” the statement said.
The targeting of hospitals is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
World leaders have condemned the bombing with Jordan's foreign minister also cancelling a regional summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The war between Israel and Hamas was “pushing the region to the brink,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told state-run television. He said Jordan would host the summit only when everyone had agreed its purpose would be to “stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians and deliver the aid they deserve.”
Before Tuesday's blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people were killed in Israel's latest strikes that began after Hamas attacks on southern Israeli communities killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 being taken captive into Gaza.
Despite the trading of blames, the heaviest price is being paid by innocent civilians, many of them young children and the most vulnerable. Many of them are still stuck under the rubble, that keeps piling on as Israeli airstrikes continue.
