Hamas and Israel blame each other for explosion that killed hundreds in Gaza hospital

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip — A huge explosion occurred on Tuesday at a hospital in Loop which was full of wounded and other Palestinians seeking refuge, causing the death of more than 500 peoplereported the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Hamas, which governs Gaza, attributed the airstrike to Israelwhile the Israeli army claimed that the explosion had been caused by an ill-fated rocket launched by other Palestinian fighters.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed.

As outrage spread across the region over the hospital massacre, and President Joe Biden headed to the Middle East on a diplomatic mission, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi declared that his country had canceled a summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdul Fatah El Sisi.

The war between Israel and Hamas was “bringing the region to the edge of the cliff”Safadi told state television. He stated that Jordan would only host the summit when everyone agreed that its objective would be “stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians and give them the help they deserve”.

Now, Biden will only visit Israel, a White House official said.

The explosion at Al Ahli hospital left horrific scenes. Video that The Associated Press confirmed came from the hospital showed the fire engulfing the building and the hospital grounds strewn with bodies, many of them young children. The grass around them was littered with blankets, backpacks, and other belongings.

The massacre occurred while USA was trying to convince Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to civilians, aid groups and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which is under a total siege preventing the distribution of water, fuel, electricity and other supplies since the incursion of Hamas in southern Israel more than a week ago. Hundreds of thousands of people are desperately searching for bread and water.

Hamas said Tuesday’s explosion at the hospital had been a “horrible massacre”and claimed it was caused by an Israeli attack.

The Israeli military blamed Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often collaborates with Hamas. The military said Islamic Jihad fighters had fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital and that the “intelligence from multiple sources” indicated that the group was responsible.

The army said in a statement that some 450 rockets fired by Palestinian fighters had landed in Gaza since the war began. “endangering and harming the lives of Gaza residents”.

Islamic Jihad rejected those claims and accused Israel of “try to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre he committed”.

The group cited Israel’s order to evacuate Al Ahli and its previous attack on the hospital complex as evidence that the hospital was an Israeli target. He also claimed that the magnitude of the explosion, the angle of fall of the bomb and the extent of the destruction pointed to Israel.

Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge in Al Ahli and other Gaza hospitals in recent days, hoping to escape attacks after Israel ordered all residents of the city and its surroundings to evacuate the area and move to southern Gaza. the Gaza Strip.

Ambulances and private vehicles transported some 350 people injured by the explosion in Al Ahli to Gaza City’s main hospital, Al Shifa, which is already overwhelmed by those injured from other attacks, said its director, Mohammed Abu Selmia. The wounded were lying on the bloody ground, screaming in pain.

“We need equipment, medicines, beds, anesthesia, we need everything”said Abu Selmia. He warned that fuel for the hospital’s generators would run out within hours.

Before the deaths at Al Ahli hospital, there were at least 2,778 dead and 9,700 injured from Israeli strikes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of the dead were children, a ministry official said. Another 1,200 people are believed to be buried under rubble, dead or alive, in various parts of Gaza, according to health authorities.

In the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 200 hostage. Hamas fighters have launched rockets from Gaza every day since then, targeting cities across Israel.

Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities, including Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, where protesters threw stones at Palestinian security forces, who responded with stun grenades. Others threw stones at Israeli checkpoints, where soldiers killed a Palestinian, West Bank authorities reported.

Elsewhere, hundreds of people joined protests that broke out in Beirut and Amman, where an angry crowd gathered outside the Israeli embassy.

Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank, had canceled his participation in the summit earlier in the day to protest the alleged attack on the hospital.

He blamed Israel for the destruction and said it had been a “massacre that cannot be tolerated or allowed to pass without accountability”.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, Israeli bombings killed dozens of civilians and a senior Hamas official in the southern half of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army ordered Palestinians to go. An AP reporter saw about 50 bodies taken to Nasser hospital after the attacks in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli tanks fired on a U.N. school in central Gaza, where about 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens more, the U.N. Palestine Refugee Agency said in a statement. Middle East (UNRWA). Qor at least 24 facilities of the UN have been targets of attacks in the last week, which have killed 14 agency staff.

The Israeli military says it is attacking Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.