Hamas claims the hospital was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Israel argues that the explosion was caused by rockets fired by another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Both sides deny any wrongdoing.
Footage from Gaza City showed chaotic scenes outside Al Ahly Hospital as emergency personnel treated the injured and rushed them to a nearby hospital.
Hezbollah declared October 18 a “day of unprecedented anger,” calling on supporters to take to city squares to express their anger at Israel and protest Biden’s visit to Tel Aviv, “to express their anger and put pressure on governments” wherever they are. writes The Times of Israel: “Let Wednesday be a day of wrath against our enemy.” Yesterday’s statement said:
“Tomorrow will be a day of unprecedented anger against the enemy and his crimes, and against Biden’s trip to the Zionist regime to cover up and protect this criminal.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ2Izyh2NvE
The Israel Defense Forces announced at 11:25 pm yesterday that they had struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon:
“In response to Israeli attacks from Lebanon over the past few days, IDF fighters recently attacked an observation post and military infrastructure belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
BBC briefly informs about the situation for this morning:
There are fears that hundreds of people have died after an explosion at Al Ahly Hospital in Gaza City. Hamas said the Israeli military was responsible for the strike. Israel, in turn, blamed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based in the Gaza Strip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KhUuQjOS6M
Protests erupted in the occupied West Bank and major cities around the world, with many world leaders condemning the explosion and some calling for a ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden is expected to land in Israel in just a few hours, but a planned summit in Jordan with Arab leaders has been canceled after a hospital explosion. Biden will have to balance his support for Israel with concerns about the humanitarian costs of the fighting during his emergency visit to the war zone.
As the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to deepen, the US said it is “closer to establishing conditions for the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip from Egypt.” The Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt, the only entry into Gaza not controlled by Israel, remains closed.
Reuters reports that the UN Security Council will vote on Wednesday on a resolution proposed by Brazil calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.
Since yesterday evening, crowds of indignant people have been storming the Israeli and US embassies in a number of Arab countries. The protesters managed to break into the territory of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. Palestinians and much of the Arab world blamed Israel, saying it struck a medical facility and that hundreds of people were killed. Jerusalem was quickly condemned by Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The Hamas-run Gaza Strip health ministry initially said at least 500 people were killed, AP reported, but that figure was later revised to 200-300, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army denies involvement in the strike and blames it on the Islamic Jihad group. On Tuesday night, the IDF said it was not behind a hospital explosion in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas health officials said resulted in hundreds of deaths, and that a misfired rocket fired by Gaza terrorists led to the explosion in al-Ahly.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “Analysis of the IDF’s operational systems shows that the terrorists fired a salvo of rockets in Gaza, which at that time took place in the immediate vicinity of Ahly Hospital in the Gaza Strip, and it was hit. “Information from multiple sources in our possession indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit a hospital in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF showed pictures of the hospital before and after the explosion – there are no signs of an airstrike:
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