Several powerful blasts rocked central districts of Gaza on October 17 evening, dealing major damage to a local hospital building.
At least 500 people have been killed in an air attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
According to Al Arabiya’s latest casualty report, the number of those killed and injured in the tragedy has exceeded 800.
How has the world reacted?
World leaders have denounced the bombing, with leaders from across the Middle East issuing the firmest statements. Protests have also erupted across the Middle East.
Jordan has cancelled a planned summit in the capital of Amman with US President Joe Biden and Arab leaders.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who had also been slated to attend the summit, said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms Israel’s bombardment” of the Gaza hospital.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in north Gaza.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called the attack on a hospital in Gaza a horrific crime and called for bringing those responsible to justice.
Western leaders did not blame Israel for the strike, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying in a social media post that “nothing can justify a strike against a hospital” and adding that “all the light must be shed on the circumstances”.
What does Israel say?
Israeli authorities said the hospital was hit by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which operates inside the Gaza Strip.
“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,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 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," he said.
The PIJ has rejected the Israeli allegation that it was responsible for the strike.
“We therefore affirm that the accusations put forward by the enemy are false and baseless,” it said.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, laid the blame for the attack on Israel and the U.S.
“The enemy is responsible for this massacre, who struck a hospital, a mosque, and the Americans, who gave unlimited cover to this enemy,” he said.
