A devastating explosion that rocked the Gaza City's Al-Ahli hospital yesterday killed hundreds of Palestinians while several others sustained serious injuries, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.At least 500 people were killed, the ministry said. While Hamas held Israeli military accountable for the airstrike the Israeli military accused the Palestine Islamic Jihad, a Sunni Islamist militant group, for misfiring the rockets.
Palestine Islamic Jihad is known to be a smaller and more radical Palestinian militant group that often works with Hamas. According to the Israeli military, Islamic Jihad militants had fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital and that “intelligence from multiple sources" indicated the group was responsible.
The gruesome bloodshed unfolded as the US tried to convince Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which has been under a complete siege since Hamas' deadly rampage in southern Israel last week. Hundreds of thousands of increasingly desperate people were searching for bread and water.
Hamas called Tuesday's hospital blast “a horrific massacre,” saying it was caused by an Israeli strike.
Who said what?
Responding to the blatant attack on the innocent civillians in Gaza, US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was "outraged" by a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital and had told security advisors to gather more details.
"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," Biden said in a statement as he headed on a visit to Israel.
"The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy," Biden said.
Condemning the brutal hostilities, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, "WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.
"The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military. The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.
Blaming the US, the Syrian presidency said,"Syria holds Western countries responsible especially the United States of America, for this massacre and others, since they are a partner of the Zionist entity across all organized operations designed to kill Palestinians."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said,"I call on all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza."
