Gaza: An explosion has killed hundreds of Palestinians at a Gaza City hospital crammed with patients and displaced people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said.
The reported strike on Tuesday, Israel time, was the bloodiest single incident since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against Gaza in retaliation for a deadly cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities on October 7.
Palestinian health authorities in the besieged enclave said the explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military, however, denies involvement in Gaza hospital blast, saying it was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants had fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital at the time.
“From the analysis of the IDF’s operational systems, an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed in the vicinity of the hospital, when it was hit,” and IDF spokesman said.
“According to intelligence information, from a number of sources we have, the PIJ organisation is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.”
A civil defence chief in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Al-Jazeera television that more than 300 people were killed at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. A Gaza Health Ministry official said at least 500 people were killed and injured.
Hamas said the blast at the hospital killed mostly displaced people. The victims included patients, women and children.
“There are scores of dismembered and crushed bodies, baths of blood,” Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior Hamas member, said.
Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3000 people have been killed in Israel’s 11-day bombardment since Hamas militants rampaged into Israeli towns and kibbutzes on October 7.
More than 1400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, Israel said.
Before denying Israeli involvement, an Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said he had no details of the hospital deaths. “We will get the details and update the public,” Hagari said, adding that he couldn’t immediately confirm it was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
“A new war crime committed by the [Israeli] occupation by bombing the Al-Ahli Hospital in the centre of Gaza City,” Salama Marouf, a spokesperson for Hamas, said. “The hospital was housing hundreds of patients, wounded, and those forcibly displaced from their homes due to the strikes.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said an Israeli airstrike had killed at least six people after hitting one of its schools that has been functioning as a shelter for displaced people.
The agency said dozens of people were injured by the strike, which it said caused “severe structural damage” to the school, where at least 4000 people were sheltering.
“They had and still have nowhere else to go,” UNRWA quoted Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini as saying in a statement.
Palestinians described intense bombardments early on Tuesday near two towns in southern Gaza, where Israel had ordered civilians to seek refuge.
Hamas’ military wing said a separate attack on a refugee camp in central Gaza killed a top Hamas commander.
Thousands of people trying to escape Gaza are gathered in Rafah, which has the territory’s only border crossing to Egypt.
Mediators are pressing for an agreement to let aid in and refugees with foreign passports out.
A senior Palestinian official said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had cancelled his participation in a meeting scheduled on Wednesday with US President Joe Biden and other Middle East leaders.
The US hoped to break a deadlock with Biden set to arrive in the region on Wednesday.
The war that began October 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.
‘Unacceptable’
Abbas declared three days of mourning following the deadly airstrike.
“What is taking place is genocide. We call on the international community to intervene immediately to stop this massacre. Silence is no longer acceptable,” a statement issued by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation said in response to the attack.
Egypt denounced “in strongest terms” the reported Israeli airstrike on the Gaza hospital, saying the international community must urgently intervene to stop such violations, according to a foreign ministry statement released late on Tuesday.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said the reported Israeli strike on the hospital in Gaza was “horrific and absolutely unacceptable”. Trudeau told reporters that “it’s not acceptable to hit a hospital”.
Near collapse
Aid workers warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege.
Palestinians desperate for water lined up to fill bottles and large jugs at a desalination plant in Gaza on Tuesday.
Children and men took turns using a hose in Nusairat to fill containers that they hauled away using bicycles, a wheelchair and a cart pulled by a donkey.
Ismael Al-Hafi said people were rationing the water they can find and wait two or three days to clean themselves.
“This is suffering,” Al-Hafi said. “Gaza is in complete collapse. There is no solar to operate the desalination plants. This means that you have to struggle to fill two gallons of water. This is suffering. May God help the people.”
AP, Reuters