Khan Younis, Gaza Strip: A massive blast has rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday local time (Wednesday morning AEDT).
The Palestinian Authority’s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of “a massacre” at the hospital. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “barbaric terrorists” in Gaza had attacked the hospital, not Israel’s military.
Video that The Associated Press confirmed was from the hospital showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital’s grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Around them in the grass were blankets, school backpacks and other belongings.
Outrage over what many believed was an Israeli strike flared across the region, a day before US President Joe Biden was due to arrive to show support for Israel and to try to prevent the war from spreading.
Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Israeli military would publish a recording of militants in Gaza blaming to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Israeli government is expected to share the information with Biden when he arrives. Biden will meet with Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet and seek a sense of Israel’s plans and objectives in the days and weeks ahead, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One during the flight to Tel Aviv.
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald.