As humanitarian worries grow over Israel’s denial of food, gasoline, and power to the inhabitants of the enclave, Palestinian sources claim that hundreds of people were murdered by a major bomb at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday.
When it was bombarded on Tuesday, Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was housing hundreds of displaced persons, according to a statement from the Palestinian Health Ministry. Under the debris, there are still many victims, it added.
Palestinian authorities attributed the fatal occurrence to continuing Israeli airstrikes. Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, have “categorically” denied any participation in the hospital attack and have placed the blame on a “failed rocket launch” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a rival Islamist terrorist organization based in Gaza.
Palestinian reports assert that hundreds of people were killed by a large explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, raising humanitarian concerns over Israel’s refusal to provide food, fuel, and electricity to the residents of the enclave.
According to a statement from the Palestinian Health Ministry, Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was hosting hundreds of displaced people when it was bombed on Tuesday. There are still numerous casualties hidden behind the rubble, it continued.
The deadly incident was ascribed by Palestinian sources to ongoing Israeli airstrikes. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a rival Islamist terrorist group located in Gaza, was held accountable for a “failed rocket launch” by the Israel Defense Forces, who have “categorically” denied any involvement in the hospital attack.
While Gaza’s border remains closed, essential humanitarian aid is accumulating despite diplomatic efforts to provide a channel from Egypt. Officials from the United Nations and other organizations have stated that any future relief convoys need to be guaranteed safe passage.
US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, an exceptional wartime visit that comes after strenuous efforts by Secretary of State Antony Blinken around the Middle East, under mounting international pressure to handle the problem.
Biden was also set to attend a conference with other Arab leaders in Amman, the capital of Jordan. But after the hospital explosion, the meeting was postponed.
Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, announced he would return to Ramallah for an urgent meeting of the Palestinian leadership in place of the scheduled gathering.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians who had been forcibly evacuated were being housed at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the heart of Gaza City.
More than 500 people, according to Hamas, which governs the enclave, were murdered in the explosion. According to prior estimates from the Palestinian Health Ministry, the incident resulted in 200 to 300 fatalities.
According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” are to fault for “attacking” the hospital on Tuesday.
“Whoever brutally murdered our children is also brutally murdering their children,” he said.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, subsequently told CNN that the IDF had contacts with terrorists in Gaza “saying this is an Islamic Jihad event” and had footage from a drone showing the impact of the hit on the hospital’s parking lot but not on the actual hospital.
According to Hagari, the IDF will shortly make available the video and audio of the communications that were intercepted.
Protests have erupted in a number of Middle Eastern countries, including Amman, where demonstrators attempted to approach the Israeli embassy, while Israeli and Gazan officials accuse one another of being responsible for the hospital catastrophe.
hospitals are under attack
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than a week of Israeli shelling in Gaza has resulted in at least 3,000 deaths, including 1,032 girls and 940 boys, and 12,500 injuries. The number of deaths in Gaza over the previous ten days has already surpassed the toll from the 51-day confrontation between Gaza and Israel in 2014.
The UN and Doctors Without Borders claim that Israeli airstrikes have hit medical institutions, including hospitals and ambulances, despite the IDF’s claims that it does not target hospitals.
At least 18 people were killed and several more were injured on Tuesday when Israeli jets attacked two densely populated refugee camps and a UNRWA school housing displaced people in central Gaza, according to Palestinian sources.Ayman Nofal, a senior Hamas commander, was reportedly killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes in Gaza, according to the IDF.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 61 individuals have died in the occupied West Bank. According to the UN, at least 20 humanitarian workers from the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and UN have died in Gaza.
Food and water supplies are running short, and Gaza’s health services are under danger. Because fuel supplies are “almost totally depleted,” twenty of the 23 hospitals are only providing partial services, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
UN agencies have issued a warning that supermarkets will run out of food supplies in less than a week and that Gaza’s final saltwater desalination plant has shut down, increasing the danger of more fatalities, dehydration, and waterborne infections.
Numerous bodies have been transported to hospitals from various parts of south Gaza, according to Dr. Mohammad Zaqout, the head of Gaza hospitals, who spoke to CNN. Numerous airstrike casualties from Rafah are included in the death toll.
Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Interior Ministry, resulted in the deaths of at least 49 individuals.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN he was “not aware of any strikes specifically in those areas but they could have happened.”
Obstructed crossing
As relief accumulates on the Egyptian side of the border, the number of urgent appeals for assistance is rising on both sides of the crossing.
The United States and Israel, according to Blinken on Tuesday, “have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza.”
However, according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, a miles-long caravan of humanitarian aid is waiting to enter Gaza on the Egyptian side of the Rafah gate.
They do not “have any authorization or clear, secure routes for those convoys to be able to enter safely and without any possibility of their being targeted,” he said, adding that “until now, there is no safe passage that has been granted.”
He continued by saying that the crossing had just had four bombings.
Moving supplies to individuals in need in Gaza, where Israeli bombings have frequently damaged UN facilities in the past week, is incredibly difficult beyond the border crossing.
“We need to have areas where humanitarians can move through safely, where people who are receiving humanitarian aid can receive that aid safely,” UN spokesperson Dujarric told CNN in a news conference on Tuesday.
“Creating distribution points where recipients of aid are not safe is the last thing you want to see.”
According to WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, the UN health organization and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had agreed for the Rafah border to be opened for humanitarian relief. However, Israel’s airstrikes made the facility dangerous, stopping the flow of vital supplies.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, said on Telegram on Tuesday that until Hamas free captives, “the only things that should be entering Gaza are hundreds of tons of explosives from the Air Force, not an ounce of humanitarian aid.”
He continued by saying that the crossing had just had four bombings.
Many refugees have congregated near the crossing on the Gaza side as part of the major exodus that has seen at least 1 million people leave their homes in the previous week alone, according to UNRWA.
Haifa Kaoud, whose husband Hesham is one of the five trapped in Gaza, claimed one family of five Palestinian-Americans who are all US citizens traveled to Rafah on Monday after learning the gates would be opened but to no effect.
Four 30-foot (9-meter) craters and concrete slabs can be seen obstructing the road at the border crossing that is closest to the Egyptian gate in satellite pictures released by Maxar Technologies.
So far, diplomatic efforts to defuse the tension have been unsuccessful. A Russian motion requesting a humanitarian ceasefire was rejected by the UN Security Council on Monday because it lacked the necessary number of votes.
Because the draft did not criticize Hamas for the October 7 attack, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said killed at least 1,400 people and resulted in dozens being held prisoner, several nations, including the US, the UK, and France voted against it.
This includes Mia Schem, an Israeli-French lady who was shown in the first captive film made public by Hamas. When addressing to reporters on Tuesday, her mother, Keren Scharf Schem, pleaded with international leaders “to bring my baby back home.”CNN has not been able to independently confirm where, when, or the health of Schem, 21, in the video.
fears of regional conflict
As border attacks turn become a focal point for greater war, regional officials expressed fear about fighting between Israel and Syria and Lebanon’s potent Hezbollah in the north.
The security fence separating Israel and Lebanon was shot at from multiple different areas, according to the IDF on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a warning that if the “atrocities” committed against Gaza continue, “Muslims and resistance forces could lose patience,” and no one would be able to stop them.
Following the October 7th assault by Hamas, terrorists fired bullets from Lebanon that Israel deflected, sparking a fatal exchange of fire.
Issam Abdallah, a south Lebanon-born journalist for Reuters, was killed by an Israeli attack on Friday evening local time. At least six other reporters were hurt in the attack.
The journalists were wearing vest jackets that were unmistakably designated as press, according to a CNN video analysis.
Additionally, the Lebanese Red Cross said that on Tuesday, Israeli attacks in Alma al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon, claimed at least four lives.
Hezbollah said that two of its fighters were killed in clashes on Tuesday. It’s unclear if they count toward the Red Cross’ stated death toll.
