Hundreds likely dead in Gaza hospital blast, as Israeli blockade cripples medical response
Hospitals under siege
More than a week of Israeli bombardment has killed at least 3,000 people, including 1,032 girls and 940 boys, and wounded 12,500 in Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Tuesday. Casualties in Gaza over the past 10 days have now surpassed the number of those killed during the 51-day Gaza-Israel conflict in 2014.
While the IDF has said it does not target hospitals, the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have struck medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.
On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes hit two densely populated refugee camps and an UNRWA school housing displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 18 people and injured scores, Palestinian officials said.
The IDF said that high-level Hamas commander Ayman Nofal was killed in the airstrikes in Gaza on Tuesday.
In the occupied West Bank at least 61 people have been killed, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. At least 20 humanitarian workers from the UN, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent have been killed in Gaza, the UN said.
Meanwhile, health services within Gaza are on the brink and food and water supplies are running low. Twenty out of 23 hospitals were offering partial services because fuel reserves are “almost totally depleted,” the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned on Tuesday.
(CNN )—
Hundreds of people were murdered by a major bomb at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, according to Palestinian sources, as humanitarian worries grow over Israel's deprivation of food, fuel, and electricity to the enclave's population.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that the bombing targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which was housing thousands of displaced Palestinians. Many victims are still buried beneath the rubble, according to the report.
Palestinian sources blamed the deadly incident on continuous Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli Defense Forces, meanwhile, has "categorically" denied any involvement in the hospital attack, instead blaming a "failed rocket launch" by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a rival Islamist militant group in Gaza.
"We did not strike that, and the intelligence we have suggests that it was a failed strike."
Meanwhile, despite diplomatic efforts to build a channel from Egypt, international humanitarian aid is piling up at Gaza's closed border. The United Nations and other officials have stated that any future relief convoys must be assured of safe passage.
Under increasing international pressure to address the crisis, US President Joe Biden will fly to Israel on Wednesday, an extraordinary wartime visit that follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken's intensive efforts across the Middle East.
Biden was also set to attend a summit with other Arab leaders in Amman, Jordan's capital. The conference, however, was canceled in the aftermath of the hospital blast.
Instead of the scheduled meeting, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would return to Ramallah for an emergency meeting.
Hamas, which controls the enclave, said more than 500 people were killed by the bombing. The Palestinian Health Ministry earlier said preliminary estimates indicate that between 200 to 300 people died in the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” for “attacking” the hospital on Tuesday.
“Whoever brutally murdered our children is also murdering their children,” he added.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari later told CNN the IDF has communications between militants in Gaza “saying this is an Islamic Jihad event” as well as drone footage showing strike impact on the hospital’s parking lot, but not the hospital itself.
Hagari said the IDF will soon release that footage and audio of the intercepted communications.
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