2023-10-18 03:50:00
People gather around the bodies after the attack on the Hospital in Gaza / Photo: AFP
At least 200 people died this Tuesday and hundreds suffered injuries of varying severity from a bombing in a hospital in the Gaza Strip that the Ministry of Health of that Palestinian territory and other countries in the region attributed to Israel, while the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu He denied responsibility for the attack and blamed another Palestinian armed group, Islamic Jihad.
“200 to 300 martyrs” perished in the bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, governed by the Islamist movement Hamas, and “hundreds of people are under the rubble,” the ministry said in a statement, cited by the AFP news agency.
“The hospital was housing hundreds of sick and wounded people, as well as people forcibly displaced from their homes” by other Israeli attacks, the text added.
Emergency meeting of the Security Council
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting this Wednesday, at the request of Russia and the United Arab Emiratesafter the bombing of the hospital.
“Russia and the United Arab Emirates have requested an urgent public meeting of the UN Security Council on the morning of October 18 due to the attack on a hospital in Gaza,” revealed Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Dmitri Polianski. , on the Telegram network.
The meeting would be at 10 (11 in Argentina), but first the proposal must be voted on by the members of the Council, which Brazil presides this month.
However, the Council had not reported on Tuesday night whether that vote was taken, although it kept tomorrow’s meeting on its agenda.
In full diplomatic activity regarding the war between Israel and Hamas, The Security Council rejected a resolution proposed by Russia on Monday night which called for a “humanitarian ceasefire”, and had to rule on a second text proposed by Brazil.
The Russian resolution rejected on Monday called for an “immediate, lasting and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire” and “unimpeded” humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip.
But it did not mention the Islamist group Hamas, which was unacceptable to the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
Brazil’s draft resolution, by contrast, specifically condemns “Hamas’ hateful terrorist attacks.”
Outrage and mourning
From Gaza, local sources cited by the Palestinian news agency Maan stated that a fire broke out in the hospital after the bombing.
The president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the other Palestinian territory of the West Bank, declared three days of mourning after the bombing of the Arab hospital, which he described as a “massacre”, according to the official Palestinian news agency. Wafa news.
Mourning will be “observed throughout Palestine for the victims of the brutal Israeli airstrike on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza,” he said.
The Palestinian Maan news agency put the death toll from the bombing at 500 and the communication office of the enclave authorities denounced a “war crime.”
Meanwhile, Abbas decided to leave Jordan and travel to the Palestinian capital in the West Bank, Ramallah, so he will not participate in the meeting scheduled for this Wednesday with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, as announced by the secretary of the Organization’s Executive Committee. for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO), Hussein al-Sheikh, on his official account on the social network
Al Sheikh, who is considered one of the possible successors of the 87-year-old president, He also detailed that Abbas called an emergency meeting for Tuesday night.
Photo file: AFP
The US Administration had confirmed Biden’s trip to the Middle East the day before, with stops not only in Israel but also in the Jordanian capital of Amman, where he was going to meet with the King of Jordan, Adbullah II; the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al Sisi, and Abbas himself, who called the attack a “military massacre” (see box).
Prime Minister Netanyahu and the country’s army attributed the bombing to Islamic Jihad.
“An analysis of IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was launched by terrorists in Gaza, passing very close to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” wrote the premiere in X.
“Information from multiple sources in our possession indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the Gaza hospital.”he added.
Tal Heinrich, Netanyahu’s spokesman, told US news network CNN that “the IDF does not attack hospitals,” adding: “We only target Hamas strongholds, weapons depots and terrorist targets.”
global repudiation
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, repudiated the attack against the health institution.
Mourning will be “observed throughout Palestine for the victims of the brutal Israeli airstrike on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza” MAHMUD ABBAS
“WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza. Early reports indicate hundreds of dead and injured. We call for immediate protection of civilians and healthcare, and for evacuation orders to be revoked.”he demanded on social network X.
European Council President Charles Michel said the attack on civilian infrastructure “is not aligned with international law.”
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, Mahmud Basal, assured that “the massacre at the Arab al-Ahli Hospital is unprecedented.”
“Although we have witnessed tragedies in wars and days past, what took place tonight amounts to genocide”said the spokesperson, as reported by the Al Jazeera news network.
For its part, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli bombing of the Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, which caused hundreds of innocent victims, injuries and wounded Palestinian citizens in Gaza.”
According to the Egyptian ministry, it was a “deliberate bombing of civilian facilities and objectives” and assessed that it was “a serious violation of the provisions of international and humanitarian law, and of the most basic values of humanity.”
Besides, called on Israel “to immediately end its policies of collective punishment against the people of the Gaza Strip” and to “stop attacking the vicinity of the Rafah crossing”the only border crossing in the Palestinian enclave that is not controlled by Israel, but which was attacked days ago, preventing access to the humanitarian aid that is crowded on that border.
In addition to Egypt, Turkey and Jordan accused Israel of the event and condemned what happened.
More attacks
In parallel, at least six people who had taken refuge in a school administered by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Gaza Strip were killed in an Israeli airstrike, that organization reported.
“The school was hit during the bombing by Israeli forces” in the StripUnrwa said in a statement.
According to the agency, dozens of people were injured and the death toll will be “certainly higher.”
Some 3,000 people were killed in Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip in retaliation after the October 7 raid by hundreds of Hamas Islamist militants, who killed some 1,400 people and kidnapped nearly 200.
On Friday, Israel ordered the southern evacuation of “all civilians” from the northern Gaza Strip, a move condemned by the UN.
Israel established humanitarian corridors only for a few hours since then, while continuing to bomb the besieged enclave, where international organizations denounced the shortage of basic supplies such as electricity and water, in addition to the lack of access to humanitarian aid.
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