Attack prompted PA President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel meeting with President Joe Biden planned for today
Palestinian rescuers doused a fire at the scene of an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. — AFP
October 18, 2023，GAZA/WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: At least 500 people were killed and a larger number wounded when an Israeli air raid hit the yard of a hospital in central Gaza, the Interior Ministry said.
The latest attack prompted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel a meeting with US President Biden planned for today. “Hundreds of victims are still under the rubble,” a statement said, calling it a “war crime”, and prompting condemnation from the World Health Organization. Hospitals and their grounds have been seen as safe havens for Gazans made homeless or displaced by the bombing, as they have been relatively spared from strikes.
Meanwhile, Biden also postponed Jordan visit following Gaza hospital blast, said White House.
Biden decided after “consulting” with Jordan´s King Abdullah II and “in light of the days of mourning” announced by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who was due at the summit along with Egypt´s president, the White House said in a statement.
“The president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded,” the statement added.
The hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. It served a dual purpose: It was a shelter for Palestinians who fled their homes following Israeli evacuation orders, as well as housing patients.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Al-Ahli Hospital located in the central Gaza Strip was bombed without any prior warning, causing severe destruction which would prevent the hospital from continuing and providing medical services for thousands of people. There are “hundreds of victims” under the rubble of a Gaza hospital compound that was hit by Israeli bombing, said the Health Ministry in the besieged coastal enclave.
Earlier today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also cancelled his meeting with Biden.
Earlier, a UN-run school in central Gaza where 4,000 people are sheltering was hit during an Israeli airstrike, killing at least six people. Entire neighbourhoods have been razed and survivors are left with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel. “The situation is catastrophic beyond what I could have imagined,” said Jamil Abdullah, A Palestinian-Swede, hoping to flee the blockaded enclave, said, “There are corpses in the streets. Buildings are crashing down on their inhabitants. Blood is everywhere. The smell of the dead is everywhere.” “Enough!” cried Mohamed Abu Zaid, counting about 20 family members killed in one strike. “How long will this continue for?”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says more than one million Palestinians -- almost half of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million -- have fled their homes. World Health Organization regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari told AFP that Gaza was barrelling towards “real catastrophe”. Since Israel’s evacuation order in north Gaza, entire families, young children and the elderly have gathered belongings and fled to southern Gaza, bedding down in any available space, indoors and out.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to join Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the summit in Amman where they were to discuss the Israel-Hamas war with Biden. “The president is very angry after the news of the Israeli massacre at the hospital in Gaza, and he decided to immediately return to Ramallah,” one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the cancellation has not been formally announced. Jordan’s foreign minister also said the country is pulling out of a planned summit with US President Joe Biden.
“There is no use in talking now about anything except stopping the war,” said Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
In the Jordanian capital Amman, dozens of protesters incensed by the strike in Gaza attempted to storm the Israeli embassy, an AFP correspondent said. Also in Istanbul, thousands of people took to the streets outside the Israeli Consulate.
In its reaction, Pakistan condemned the Israeli attack on Hospital in Gaza resulting in hundreds of casualties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs termed “attacking a hospital, where civilians were seeking shelter and emergency treatment is inhumane and indefensible. The indiscriminate targeting of civilian population and facilities is a grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes. The foreign office called on the international community to take urgent measures to bring an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza and the impunity with which Israeli authorities have operated in the last few days.
Following the attack, Russia and the UAE requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council. “Russia and the UAE have requested an urgent open meeting of the UN Security Council for the morning of October 18 over the Gaza hospital strike,” Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said.
Earlier, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution proposed by Russia that would have called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The draft text had called for a humanitarian ceasefire, release of all hostages, aid access, and safe evacuation of civilians. The Russian-led draft resolution received five votes in favour (China, Gabon, Mozambique, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates) and four against (France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), with six abstentions (Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Malta, and Switzerland).
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, after the vote claimed the council had once again been held “hostage” to the “selfish intentions of the Western bloc of countries.”
Linda Thomas Greenfield, the US permanent representative to the UN, said that by failing to mention Hamas, Russia has dishonoured the victims of the Oct. 7 attack. Israel’s Gilad Erdan said, “Will the council support the fight for civilization? or will it incentivize the genocide of Jihadists who aim to murder all the infidels?” he said. “For a body dedicated to security, this shouldn’t even be a question. “The first step this council must take before any calls for aid, calm or restraint is to designate Hamas as the murderous terror organization that it is.”
A further draft resolution is on the Council’s agenda for consideration on Tuesday, from Brazil. According to news reports, it calls for humanitarian pauses, as well as issued condemnation of Hamas and all terrorist acts against civilians.
US President Joe Biden will visit Israel today (Wednesday) in a show of “ironclad” support as Washington tries to prevent the escalating war against Hamas in Gaza from spilling into a wider Middle East conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden’s visit would be a statement of “solidarity with Israel” and an “ironclad commitment to its security”. Biden will “speak to other leaders in the region, about the humanitarian assistance that we want to make sure gets into Gaza, about Israeli plans and intentions going forward,” he added. Washington has already sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel”. Israeli official Tzachi Hanegbi says US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Israel is “making clear to our enemies that if they even imagine taking part in the offensive against the citizens of Israel, there will be American involvement here”. “Israel will not be alone … A US force is here and it is ready,” he added, without elaborating.
An Israeli military spokesman has denied there’s a humanitarian crisis, despite desperate scenes in Gaza and warnings from the UN as Israel blocks supplies of food, water, fuel, and electricity Israel’s army said it had killed four militants attempting to infiltrate from Lebanon, the latest in a series of incidents. Hamas released a video of one of the captives, French-Israeli woman Mia Shem. Her mother, Keren Shem, made an emotional plea for her safe return, at a Tel Aviv press conference. Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said that Israeli forces “will commence the enhanced military activities when the timing suits the goal”. He stressed that “if hostages are dead, that is the responsibility of Hamas and Hamas will pay the price”, with the army later announcing the killing of a senior Hamas commander, Ayman Nofal.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that “no one can stop” forces opposed to Israel if it keeps up its bombardment of Gaza. While signalling support, Biden will also try to quietly steer Israeli’s military response, as international alarm has grown about the devastating impact of the war on Palestinian civilians.
The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to the Prime Minister and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. According to the PM Office, the leaders agreed on the importance of avoiding further destabilisation.
Prime Minister Scholz took shelter in the German embassy amid another wave of rockets fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv and southern Israel, according to the DPA news agency. Blinken, after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled there was no agreement yet on humanitarian relief, but said there was a “commitment” to work on a plan ahead of and during Biden’s visit. He said the US president hopes to “hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimises civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.”
Egypt kept closed Gaza’s only border crossing not controlled by Israel, Rafah, meaning there is no escape.
Meanwhile, According to social media posts, the Arabic IDF page on Facebook had uploaded a post gloating over Israel’s bombing of the hospital in Gaza. The post, which read as: “Due to the lack of medical equipment and the lack of medical staff, it was decided to bomb the Baptist Hospital in Gaza and give them euthanasia death”, was later deleted.
In a similar case of deleting after posting, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu too deleted a tweet less than a day after posting it. The deleted tweet, which was seen as racist and genocidal, said: “This is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.”
