Episcopal church managing Gaza hospital was 'terrified' after earlier missile strike
Episcopal church managing Gaza hospital was 'terrified' after earlier missile strike
“We've been more terrified when a missile hit the hospital on Saturday as a warning,” a priest with the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which manages the hospital, told the BBC.
“Saturday, a missile hit the hospital, damaged the building extensively and caused the injury of four people,”
“My understanding is that it has been accepted as an Israeli missile,” the priest said.
A senior health official in the Gaza Strip said Israel fired two artillery shells as a “warning” at al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City days before it was bombed.
The hospital was first attacked on Saturday evening, according to undersecretary of the Ministry of Health Yousef Abu al-Rish.
The following day the Israeli army called the hospital’s director: “We warned you yesterday with two shells,” they said before calling for the evacuation of the hospital, according to Abu al-Rish.
Palestinian officials and leaders of the Arab and Islamic world have blamed Israel for bombing the hospital and killing more than 500 people.
Israel blamed the strike on a malfunctioning missile fired by Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad denied the allegation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Jeddah Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, videos posted on social media show.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to address the Israel-Palestine war.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jillani arrived in Saudi Arabia Tuesday.
Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Jeddah as Arab and Muslim states condemned Israel for a strike on al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City that killed more than 500 people, according to Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group denied Israel’s accusation that it fired the missile that struck al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
The group said Israel was “trying hard to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed”.
“The accusations promoted by the enemy are baseless,” Islamic Jihad said, adding that the group “does not use places of worship or public facilities, especially hospitals, as military centres or weapons stores”.
US President Joe Biden intends to ask Israel ‘some tough questions’ when he arrives in the country Wednesday, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council said.
“We all want to know what happened in the attack on the Gaza hospital,” Kirby said, regarding a strike on al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City that killed more than 500 people, according to Palestinian officials.
Palestinian officials and leaders across the Middle East have blamed the strike on Israel. A summit planned between Biden and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian authority was cancelled after the attack.
Kirby said the decision not to proceed with the summit was “mutual.”
Biden also plans to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza with Israeli leaders. He will also meet with victims of the Hamas attack and families of hostages.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was horrified by a strike on al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City, though he refrained from assigning blame over the strike.
"Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law," Guterres wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter
Mahmoud Abbas said Palestine will not allow for another Nakba in the 21st century as he called for the UN Security Council to condemn Israel for a strike at al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
The attack killed more than 500 people, according to Palestinian authorities.
“We will not allow for a second Nakba in the 21st century, we will not leave and we will remain steadfast, regardless of the sacrifices, we will not allow for the bloodbath in Gaza.”
“We will not move. We will not leave” our lands he added.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador at the United Nations said Arab countries held Israel responsible for the blast at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that killed more than 500 people, according to Palestinian authorities.
“We hold Israel responsible for this massacre and crime,” he said. “Those responsible should face justice and accountability and punishment.”
He said Israeli claims that the hospital strike was the result of a misfired rocket from Gaza was a lie
Good evening Middle East Eye readers.
Today marks the 11th day of the war which started on 7 October.
While the full siege on Gaza continues for over a week, a strike on the al-Ahli al-Arab hospital in Gaza killed at least 500 people and wounded hundreds of others.
The attack makes today one of the highest death counts in a day since the start of the war.
Here are some of the key developments from today.
- An Israeli air strike on the al-Ahli al-Arab hospital which killed at least 500 has been denounced as a ‘massacre’ and ‘violation of international laws,’ by rights groups. The attack was strongly condemned by Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Bahrain, Canada and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.
- The attack on the hospital triggered widespread protests across the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority opened fire to disperse protesters.
- Global protests denouncing the attack took place in Syria, Tunisia, Spain, Berlin, Turkey and Lebanon. In Jordan, protesters stormed the Israeli embassy.
- Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi has called off the summit between the US, Egypt and Palestinian leaders scheduled for tomorrow after the hospital attack.
- The Committee to Protect Journalists said that 17 journalists have been confirmed killed in the past week-and-a-half of fighting.
- Unrwa, the refugee agency, says that at least six Palestinians have been killed today by an Israeli bombing in one of their schools.
- Israel’s army said today that 301 soldiers have been killed since October 7.
- Oxfam says that Gaza is facing an “unprecedented health crisis”, with a growing risk of an outbreak of deadly infectious diseases, including cholera as water and sanitation services break down in the Strip.
- Tensions have flared up along the Lebanon-Israel border, with Hezbollah firing a series of rockets and anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon into Israel.
- In Jerusalem, Palestinians say they are “afraid to leave their homes” as Israeli security forces and patrols of volunteers armed by Itamar Ben-Gvir’s national security ministry attack and harass residents.
- An Arab teacher was dismissed from an Israeli school because she followed the Eye on Palestine page on social media.
We at Middle East Eye are doing our best to continue providing you with up-to-date information around the clock. Internet connectivity in Gaza has dropped by nearly half as of Friday, and we’ve lost contact with our correspondents there.
You can also find our coverage across Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.
Humanitarian organisation Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said: “We are horrified by the recent Israeli bombing of Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans,” in a statement published on social media platform X.
“Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable,” they added. “Nothing justifies this shocking attack on a hospital and its many patients and health workers, as well as the people who sought shelter there. Hospitals are not a target. This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah has called Israel's bombing of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City a “heinous war crime” and said that “Israel must end its brutal aggression on Gaza,” in a statement published on social media platform X.
Ayman al-Safadi, Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said “We were forced to take a strong stance, and there will no longer be an official visit for the US president to Jordan tomorrow.”
Safadi confirmed that Mahmoud Abbas went back to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on a Jordanian plane and Biden will no longer be visiting the kingdom.
“We spoke to officials in Egypt and the US and we have reached this decision. The US understood our decision and the UN needs to have a role in putting a stop to the war,” he added, in the conversation with Al Jazeera Arabic.
“We cannot be silent on what’s happening in Gaza, and we need to speak to the international community and get them to see this,” he said.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi has called off the summit between the US, Egypt and Palestinian leaders scheduled for Wednesday.
The decision was announced early Wednesday morning in the wake of the devastating strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza that killed at least 500 Palestinians.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that a Palestinian was "shot dead by an Israeli" in the occupied West Bank town of Nabi Saleh.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday that 17 journalists have been confirmed killed in the past week-and-a-half of fighting.
They said 13 of those killed were Palestinian, three were Israeli and one was a Lebanese national.
Eight journalists have been wounded and three are either missing or detained, the organisation added.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah made the announcement while denouncing the attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians, in a statement today.
Hezbollah held the US responsible, saying 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.”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-invasion-live
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:55
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