About 500 Palestinians were killed in a blast at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that Palestinian health authorities said was caused by an Israeli air strike but that the Israeli military blamed on a failed rocket launch by a Palestinian militant group, as reported by the Associated Press:
Gaza hospital blast is the bloodiest since Mideast war began
Newslooks- (AP)
About 500 Palestinians were killed in a blast at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that Palestinian health authorities said was caused by an Israeli air strike but that the Israeli military blamed on a failed rocket launch by a Palestinian militant group.
The blast was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for a deadly cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.
It took place on the eve of a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel to show support for the country in its war with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, and to hear how Israel plans to minimize civilian casualties.
The health minister in the Hamas-run government of Gaza, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of a massacre. A Gaza civil defence chief said 300 people were killed and a health ministry official said 500 were killed.
However, the Israeli military denied responsibility for the blast at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City, suggesting the hospital was hit by a failed rocket launch by the enclave’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad military group.
“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza,” the spokesperson added.
Daoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told reporters: “This is a lie and fabrication, it is completely incorrect. The occupation is trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the blast.
Clashes with Palestinian security forces broke out in a number of other cities in the West Bank, which is ruled by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, late on Tuesday, witnesses said.
ISRAEL DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN BOMBING OF GAZA CITY HOSPITAL
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it had no involvement in an explosion that killed hundreds of people at a Gaza City hospital and that the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says an Israeli airstrike caused the blast, which killed some 500 people, many of whom had sought shelter from an ongoing Israeli offensive.
The Israeli military, however, said Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital.
A chaotic scene unfolded at Al Shifa hospital Tuesday night as Palestinians injured in an attack on another hospital in Gaza City arrived for treatment.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 500 people at al-Ahli Hospital.
Photos purportedly taken at al-Ahli Hospital shared widely on social media showed fire engulfing the building, with bodies scattered among the wreckage. Those photos could not be independently verified.
Footage captured by The Associated Press showed ambulances and private cars converging on Al Shifa hospital, where medics and others rushed the injured inside on stretchers and a wheelchair.
One person had a bloody stump where their left leg was missing. Four men carried a body bag to a civil defense vehicle.
Inside Al Shifa, the wounded were laid out on bloody floors, screaming in pain, as shouting people surrounded them. Some of the injured were not moving. Workers in scrubs ran outside and sirens wailed as more Red Crescent ambulances arrived.
UN secretary-general to discuss Palestinian aid during Egypt visit
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will arrive in Cairo on Thursday, focused on reopening the Gaza border to allow in desperately needed aid for millions of Palestinians.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who made the announcement Tuesday, said the secretary-general will engage with Egyptian leaders including President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and speak at an international conference on Saturday hosted by the president.
“This situation is becoming more than critical,” he said. “We are at a time of extreme tension, where we’re calling to move away from further escalation and any possible miscalculation.”
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths is already in Cairo meeting with U.S. and other officials to try to get the most basic humanitarian aid — food, water, fuel and medicine — into Gaza, Dujarric said.
The U.N. spokesman told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that humanitarian corridors are essential to move aid through Gaza safely, and there must also be distribution points to deliver aid safely, without fear of active bombardment.
RESIDENTS LINE UP TO COLLECT SCANT WATER SUPPLIES IN GAZA
NUSAIRAT, Gaza Strip — Palestinians desperate for water lined up to fill bottles and large jugs Tuesday at a desalination plant in Gaza.
Children and men took turns using a hose in Nusairat to fill containers that they hauled away using bicycles, a wheelchair and a cart pulled by a donkey.
Ismael Al-Hafi said people are rationing the water they can find and wait two or three days to clean themselves.
“This is suffering,” Al-Hafi said. “Gaza is in complete collapse. There is no solar to operate the desalination plants. This means that you have to struggle to fill two gallons of water. This is suffering. May God help the people.”
UNRWA SAYS AT LEAST SIX KILLED IN ATTACK ON SCHOOL IN GAZA
AMMAN — The U.N. agency for Palestinians says at least six people were killed when one of its schools in central Gaza Strip was hit Tuesday.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General, said dozens of people were also injured, including agency staff, when the UNRWA school in the al-Maghazi refugee camp came under bombardment. He said the school — which has served as a shelter for some 4,000 displaced people since the latest hostilities began — is seriously damaged.
AP video of the aftermath shows where tank shells crashed through classroom walls, leaving concrete pockmarked by shrapnel and piles of rubble in the hallways. Blood was splattered on crumbling cinderblocks. Rooms where Palestinians had taken refuge were filled with debris and splintered school chairs.
“This is outrageous and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.”
