Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Israel crossed “all red lines” by targeting al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, calling the attack that killed at least 500 people a “hideous war massacre” that cannot be tolerated.
“Israel has crossed all red lines … We will not leave nor allow anyone to expel us from there,” he said.
Health authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said an Israeli air strike caused Tuesday evening’s blast.
Abbas was in Jordan for a four-way meeting with US President Joe Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, but pulled out following the attack.
Later, Jordan announced the cancellation of the summit with the US and Egyptian leaders.
Biden will now visit only Israel and postpone his travel to Jordan, a White House official said.
Al Jazeera’s Safwat Kahlout, reporting from Gaza, said most of the victims of the attack on the hospital were women and children, citing the enclave’s health officials.
He said the death toll was expected to rise as many bodies remained unidentified.
“In Gaza, at least five hospitals received warnings from Israel to evacuate. According to international law, hospitals are meant to be safe and off-limits to attacks. In Gaza, this principle is not upheld,” Kahlout said.
United Nations Secretary-Gene ralAntonio Guterres on Wednesday said he was horrified after the deaths of hundreds of people in a strike on a hospital in Gaza while Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar demanded that Israel be held accountable for its “war crimes”.
The strike, which killed about 500, was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for the Oct 7 offensive by Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority’s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of “a massacre” at Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital.
Israeli accepts responsibility;
According to the Turkish aNews, a Netanyahu aide, Hananya Naftali, had initially made a social media post attributing the hospital blast to the Israeli Air Force. He, however, swiftly deleted it and made another post blaming Hamas. Other journalists pointed it out as well.
Protests in several major cities
Protests have sprung up in several major cities after the bombing of a Gaza hospital where hundreds of wounded people were being treated.
One doctor described the blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday night as "a massacre".
It enraged Palestinians who flooded the streets of several cities in the West Bank, throwing stones and chanting against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Protesters were also seen in Libyan cities, outside the British and French embassies in Tehran as well as at Israeli embassies in Turkey and Jordan. Hamas, Palestinian authorities, and other countries blame Israel for the explosion, which Hamas says killed 500 people.