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A rocket hit Al-Ahli Hospital in central Gaza, where thousands of refugees had sought protection or were being treated. According to Palestinian information, at least 500 people have lost their lives and many victims are still under the rubble. The photos show that dead bodies have been found. Dozens of injured are being treated. Doctors Without Borders said the attack had caused a "massacre". According to Israel's version, the rocket is said to have hit mainly the hospital's parking lot.
But who shot the rocket? Hamas blames Israel for the bombing, but the Israeli military strongly disputes this and blames Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad is an Islamic terrorist organization. Ideologically, it is not different from Hamas, but still maintains much closer contacts with Iran.
The explosion in the parking lot
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that he would make public the evidence of the allegations. This morning Hagar's words were followed by action. The Israeli military released drone footage on social media that it says proves it did not trigger a deadly explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip. A video shows the hospital parking lot where the explosion happened. Footage shows the explosion has caused a large fire, but no crater. According to the military, Israeli attacks usually leave large holes in the ground. Drone footage also suggests shrapnel hitting the roofs of nearby buildings.
Tapped conversation
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, another Israeli military spokesman, told CNN that the Israeli military had intercepted an Islamic Jihad conversation in which fighters reportedly admitted to a missile strike that went awry. A recording of the conversation will be released, Conricus said.
A supporter of Islamic Jihad says it was the first time he had seen a rocket fall that way. This is why he assumes the missile belongs to Islamic Jihad. "It is ours?" asks one of the Palestinians. "That's what it looks like!" replies the other. The remains of the rocket indicate a typical domestic rocket. "They fired from the cemetery behind the hospital and missed." Registration cannot be independently verified.
Therefore, Israel speaks of a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian militant organization. Videos show a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploding in the air and then debris falling on the hospital.
How Islamic Jihad reacts
Islamic Jihad described the accusations made by Israel as "lies". "We think these claims are false and baseless." Israel wants to "use these lies to justify its attacks on hospitals" and "avoid responsibility for its own crimes," Islamic Jihad said. According to the movement, the hospital was ordered to be evacuated by Israel under threat of bombing and it was a bomb dropped by an Israeli army plane that caused the tragedy.
Ali Jadallah, an experienced war photographer, told the New York Times: “I can hardly describe what I saw. I witnessed the murder of my family, but I can't process what I saw today."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has steadfastly denied responsibility for the rocket attack. "The whole world must know: it was the barbaric terrorists in Gaza who attacked the hospital in Gaza," Netanyahu said on Tuesday. It was not the Israeli army. "Those who brutally killed our children are also killing their own," he continued.
Jordan cancels meeting with Biden
Jordan has canceled a meeting between King Abdullah II and US President Joe Biden scheduled for Wednesday. The meeting, which Egypt's head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was also scheduled to attend, will only take place if an agreement is reached to end the war and stop "these massacres," Foreign Minister Ayman said. al-Safadi.
Biden himself reacted with concern to the missile attack. He said he was "outraged and deeply saddened" by the explosion at the hospital and the terrible loss of life it caused. Soon after the incident became public, he spoke to Jordan's King Abdullah II and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and instructed his team to gather further information about what happened.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of national mourning. Palestinian flags will be at half-mast.
Russia demands proof from Israel
After the missile strike, Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the "terrible crime". The country blamed Israel for the attack, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry on Tuesday evening. Riyadh condemns the "continuous attacks of the Israeli occupation" against civilians.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the rocket attack on the Gaza Strip. "Nothing can justify an attack on a hospital," he wrote in X. "Nothing can justify targeting civilians." The circumstances must be fully clarified. The Russian Foreign Ministry spoke of a "terrible crime" and demanded evidence in the form of satellite images from Israel.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (65) also spoke on Wednesday. "I am horrified by the images we are getting of the explosion in a hospital in Gaza. Innocent people were injured and killed. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. It is important that this incident be clarified very carefully", he wrote in X.
Spontaneous protests
Spontaneous protests broke out in several Muslim-majority countries. The pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah, which is active in Lebanon, declared an "unprecedented day of rage" against Israel. This is also directed against US President Joe Biden's solidarity visit to Israel scheduled for Wednesday, the Shiite organization announced late Tuesday evening. Biden wants to "support the criminal regime".
Hezbollah stressed that words of condemnation were no longer enough. He called on people in the Arab and Islamic world to express their anger through protests.
In Amman, demonstrators tried to get to the Israeli embassy, Jordan's Petra news agency reported on Tuesday evening. Jordanian security circles reportedly dismissed reports that the building had been attacked. The demonstrators left the area.
Scores of protesters gathered in front of the Israeli consulate in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul on Tuesday evening. Some waved Palestinian flags and chanted: "Down with Israel!", according to a broadcast by the state-run Anadolu news agency. The police were there with a large contingent to protect the consulate. Israel ordered its citizens to leave Turkey.
Iran reacts
According to eyewitnesses, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets in the southern suburbs of Beirut and demanded that Tel Aviv be bombed.
In Iran, a crowd in downtown Tehran chanted "Down with Israel." The government declared Wednesday a day of mourning. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman strongly condemned the attack and blamed its arch-enemy, Israel. In Tehran, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the British and French embassies early in the morning and called for "the death of England and France," an AFP correspondent reported. Several thousand people also gathered in a central square in the Iranian capital to express their anger over the deadly attack, an AFP photographer reported.
On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates and Russia requested an urgent meeting of the most powerful UN body, the German Press Agency learned from diplomatic sources. / Blick – Bota.al
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