On Tuesday, a rocket attack at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza killed over 500 people, including the wounded and people using it as shelter, the Gaza health ministry said. While varying reports by leading Western news agencies peg the number of deaths between 300 and 200, anger boils over the attack, which was quickly condemned by world leaders, including US President Joe Biden.
The Gaza health ministry added that the hospital had served a vital role in offering shelter to civilians. “The hospital was housing hundreds of sick and wounded, and people forcibly displaced from their homes,” the ministry said. Many were seeking refuge in the hospital from frequent Israeli air raids.
Heartbreaking images from the hospital show people carrying wounded children to another Gaza hospital. Several ambulances were seen arriving with people injured and bleeding. Some footage also showed medics and civilians recovering bodies with white bags or blankets as relatives sat with the dead in the makeshift morgue. Torched cars were also seen in the darkened hospital courtyard.
Israel has quickly said the attack was caused by an erratic rocket fired by the militant group Islamic Jihad. However, much of the Arab world isn’t convinced. Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have blamed Israel for the barbaric attack. Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm.
Daniel Hagari said “An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza,” he added.
Head of Hamas military brigade killed
The conflict between Israel and the Hamas fighters has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday, again warned Hamas militants and said IDF would wipe out the name of the terror group as the world had “erased ISIS”.
The Hamas terror group announces the death of a senior member in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Ayman Nofal, a member of the terror group’s General Military Council and the head of its military wing’s Central Gaza Brigade, was killed, reported The Times of Israel.
Besides, there are a number of developments have taken place– US President Joe Biden announced to visit the war-torn nation where he is scheduled to meet Netanyahu, and leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke to Netanyahu and expressed his willingness to mediate the peace talks between Israel and Palestine. However, the Israeli PM, in staunch words, the military will not stop until Hamas is wiped out.
