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After a rocket hit a hospital in Gaza, Hamas and Israel blame each other for it. Several governments condemned the attack, and the UN called for a complete investigation. An overview.
An explosion in a hospital in the Gaza Strip sparked horror around the world. Hundreds of people are said to have died. What is known so far:
What happened?
According to the Ministry of Health there, hundreds of people are said to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. The ministry, which reports to the militant Islamist Hamas, said on Tuesday evening that thousands of refugees from the north of the coastal enclave were being accommodated in the clinic. The information could not be independently verified.
Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people hoping to escape bombardment after Israel urged all residents of the city and surrounding areas to flee to the southern Gaza Strip.
What does the Israeli side say?
Israel’s military has clearly denied responsibility for the rocket strike. “The hospital was hit by a failed rocket from the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad,” the army said.
The military released footage intended to prove that it was a misguided Palestinian rocket. The video compilation shows aerial photos of the clinic and a parking lot where a fire broke out. Aerial photos before and after the fatal incident are compared. There is no typical crater to be seen, as is usually the case during Israeli air strikes.
Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus also told US broadcaster CNN that the military had evidence of a conversation between Hamas terrorists intercepted by Israel. They would have said, “Oh, there was apparently a malfunction or an explosion of a rocket that landed in the Gaza Strip.” In addition, shortly before the incident, a volley of rockets was fired from the central or northern section of the Gaza Strip towards Israel. This was recorded on Israel’s radar system.
What does she say? Palestinian Page?
Islamic Jihad called Israel’s accusation a “lie” intended to “justify its attacks on hospitals” and “evade responsibility for its crime.” Hamas also blamed Israel. The terrorist militia’s media office spoke of a “war crime.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of national mourning. Palestinian flags should be flown at half-mast, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. According to his adviser, Abbas cut short a visit to Jordan early to call an emergency meeting in Ramallah.
What are the consequences of the attack?
After the rocket hit, Jordan canceled a meeting between King Abdullah II and US President Joe Biden. The meeting, which Egypt’s head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was also scheduled to take part in, would only take place if there was an agreement to end the war and stop “these massacres,” Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi told the Jordanian TV channel Al -Mamlaka.
A US government official confirmed shortly afterwards that Biden was postponing his trip to Jordan and the meeting there after consultation with King Abdullah II and in view of the days of mourning announced by Palestinian President Abbas. He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of the rocket strike. Biden wanted to remain in regular and direct contact with the people he wanted to meet.
During his visit to Israel today, Biden also wants to ask “hard questions,” said John Kirby, communications director for the US government’s National Security Council. Among other things, Biden wants to hear more about Israel’s goals and plans in the coming days and weeks. The US President will also make it very clear that the US does not want the conflict to expand, it was said.
How is the Arab world reacting?
Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the “heinous crime” – and blamed Israel for it, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry. Riyadh condemns the “continued attacks by the Israeli occupation” on civilians. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also blamed Israel. Morocco also “strongly condemned” the “bombing” of the clinic “by Israeli forces.” Civilians must be “protected by all parties.” Bahrain also joined in the criticism of the “Israeli bombing.”
In Lebanon, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters poured into the streets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, eyewitnesses said, demanding that Tel Aviv be bombed. Hezbollah declared a “day of unprecedented wrath” against Israel.
There were also protests in other countries. In Iran, for example, a crowd in Tehran’s city center chanted “Down with Israel,” as videos from the state news agency IRNA showed. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman strongly condemned the attack and blamed its arch-enemy Israel.
How is the international community reacting?
UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his dismay at the devastating missile strike. “I am appalled by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians today in an attack on a hospital in Gaza, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms,” Guterres wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical staff are subject to the protection of international humanitarian law.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called for a complete investigation. “Those responsible must be held accountable,” he said. He called on states with influence in the region to do everything in their power to bring the terrible events there to an end.
How does Germany express itself?
The Foreign Office in Berlin strongly condemned the attack. “We are deeply shocked by reports of hundreds of deaths at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza,” the Foreign Ministry said on its English-language account on to be attacked.” Civilians must be protected in conflicts, it said.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his dismay at the devastating destruction. “I am horrified by the images that are reaching us of the explosion in a hospital in Gaza,” he wrote on X. He demanded: “It is important that this incident is clarified very carefully.”
Scholz arrived in Egypt from Israel on Wednesday night after the departure was delayed due to a rocket alarm.