Palestinian rocket kills 500 at Christian hospital in Gaza
A failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket launch killed hundreds of Palestinians on Tuesday night at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have indicates that the PIJ organization is responsible for the failed launch that hit the hospital,” stated IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the hospital at the time it was hit,” Hagari added.
“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF,” wrote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”
The explosion rocked the hospital, as Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired heavy barrages of rockets at southern and central Israel. Alarms sounded in major cities, including Rishon Letzion, Petach Tikvah, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Bat Yam.
Hamas’s Izzad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said it targeted the northern Israeli city of Haifa with an R-160 long-range rocket.
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Gaza-based terror groups have for years fired rockets at Israeli civilians from within residential areas in the coastal enclave. They have been reported to place weapons inside or near hospitals and other public buildings.
During the May 2021 Gaza conflict, some 15% of all the rockets that Hamas and PIJ launched fell short inside Gaza, killing many Palestinians in the enclave.
Hamas killed at least 1,400 Israelis in a massive attack on Oct. 7, which included the firing of thousands of rockets at Israel and the infiltration of the Jewish state by more than 2,500 terrorists, who butchered and tortured men, women, children and infants.
Hamas had charged that “the massacre at the Baptist Hospital is a crime of genocide” and blamed Israel. The terror group called on Arab and Islamic countries to “intervene immediately” and urged Arabs in Judea and Samaria to attack Israeli forces to “avenge the massacre.”
U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to land Wednesday morning in Israel. Multiple U.S. naval carrier strike groups are in or are en route to the region.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas canceled a planned meeting tomorrow with Biden, a senior Palestinian Authority official told the Associated Press. The summit with Biden was expected to include Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Abbas ordered that three days of mourning be observed in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and that PLO flags be flown at half-mast, according to the authority’s Wafa news agency.
“The president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded,” per the pool. “He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days.”
Waves of condemnation
Prior to Israel’s announcement that Palestinian terrorists had misfired, hitting the hospital, Israel was condemned widely and, per Herzog, in “a 21st-century blood libel.”
In a statement cited by Jordan’s Petra News Agency, Amman “denounced, in the strongest terms, the Israeli airstrike that targeted al-Ahli Hospital, holding Israel, the occupying power, responsible for this serious development.”
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli bombing of al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent victims and wounding and injuring Palestinian citizens in Gaza.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on “all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” saying the incident shows the Jewish state is “devoid of the most basic human values.”
Jerusalem raised its travel warning to Turkey to the highest level, Israel’s National Security Council announced on Tuesday, urging all Israelis in Turkey to leave the country immediately.
Saudi Arabia said the incident “forces the international community to abandon double standards it has used to selectively apply international law when it comes to Israeli criminal practices and requires a serious and firm stance in order to provide protection for defenseless civilians.”
Bahrain called for an “urgent ceasefire” and voiced its “support for any regional or international effort that would de-escalate and stop violence,” as well as reviving the Arab-Israeli peace process.
“Israel just bombed the Baptist hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” wrote Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Addressing Biden, Tlaib wrote, “this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate. Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”
In Brussels, Charles Michel, president of the European Council of E.U. leaders, lamented the “dramatic situation on the ground of the people” of Gaza, adding that “an attack against a civilian infrastructure is not in line with international law,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The World Health Organization condemned what it called an “attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital.” In a statement on social media, the WHO called for the “immediate active protection of civilians and health care.”
‘A day of unprecedented anger’
After Qatar-based Al Jazeera accused Israel of targeting the hospital “where thousands of civilians are seeking medical treatment and shelter from relentless attacks,” angry protesters gathered in front of the Israeli embassies in Amman and Istanbul, per video footage shared on social media.
In Amman, crowds tried to set the Israeli diplomatic mission on fire, per local media.
In Lebanon, the Hezbollah terrorist organization declared “a day of unprecedented anger” against Israel and the United States, reported Reuters.
“The attack reveals the true criminal face of this entity and its sponsor … the United States, which bears direct and complete responsibility for this massacre,” the Iran-backed terror group stated.
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