2023-10-18 08:55:04
One more drama. And hundreds of deaths are added to the thousands of people who have already died, in Israel and in the Gaza Strip, since the Hamas attack on October 7. An explosion hit a hospital in central Gaza on Tuesday evening, killing hundreds. Israelis and Palestinians blame each other.
Since the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, whose commandos killed more than 1,400 people – most of them Israeli civilians – and took nearly 200 hostages, Israel has been bombarding the neighboring enclave daily, in the hope of eliminate the Islamist movement responsible for the massacre. The strikes left more than 3,000 dead, many of them civilians.
What happened ?
On the eleventh day of the war started by Hamas, an airstrike hit the Ahli Arab hospital compound in central Gaza, killing between 200 and 300 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry. A toll which would even amount to more than 500 deaths, according to Hamas, in power in the enclave.
“We were operating in the hospital, there was a loud explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room. It’s a massacre,” said Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with Médecins sans frontières, in a press release from the NGO.
Since then, everyone has blamed each other. Hamas immediately accused Israel of being behind the shooting. The country defended itself by attributing the tragedy to “a failed rocket attack” by Islamic Jihad. “We will provide proof of our assertions in the coming hours,” assured Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. Islamic Jihad, for its part, described these accusations as “lies” and criticized Israel for wanting to “evade responsibility for its crime”.
What do we know about the victims?
It is still too early to know the final number, especially since “hundreds of victims are still in the rubble,” said the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent (a relief society member of the International Red Cross Movement), which denounced a “war crime”, the strike caused “hundreds” of civilian victims, “including women, children , health personnel”.
Since the start of the bombings, entire families have tried to find refuge in the various hospitals in the territory, which have become improvised camps.
Demonstrations and day of mourning
After this deadly bombing contrary to international law, anger ignited part of the Arab world. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the French and British embassies in Tehran overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Similar demonstrations took place in front of the French embassy in Tunis. Other gatherings took place in the streets of Amman (Jordan), Istanbul and Beirut.
Iran has declared a day of “public mourning” this Wednesday. Mauritania has declared three days of national mourning. Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, called for a “day of anger” this Wednesday.
How did the leaders react?
Reactions were quick given the seriousness of the situation. UN chief Antonio Guterres, who is due to travel to Egypt on Thursday to discuss humanitarian aid, said on Tuesday evening he was “horrified”. The Hamas attacks “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinians”, he added on Wednesday from Beijing, after denouncing “the terrorist acts committed by Hamas on October 7”.
“An attack against civilian infrastructure does not respect international law,” responded the President of the European Council Charles Michel. The WHO also “strongly condemned” the raid on the hospital.
On Tuesday evening, France “firmly” condemned the strike on the hospital, without targeting either party involved in the war. “International humanitarian law is binding on everyone and must enable the protection of civilian populations,” specifies the press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Nothing can justify a strike against a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians,” responded Emmanuel Macron, ensuring that he was thinking of “Palestinian victims”.
Nothing can justify a strike against a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians.
France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza which caused so many Palestinian victims. We think of them. All the light must be shed.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 17, 2023
Joe Biden, expected in Israel this Wednesday, said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion” and “the terrible losses that resulted.” He claimed to have subsequently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, which manages the hospital, condemned a “brutal” attack that occurred “during Israeli strikes”, denouncing a “crime against humanity”.
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