Horror and terror, again. A strike on a Gaza hospital late Tuesday left hundreds of victims “under the rubble,” said Hamas, which accuses Israel of being behind the explosion. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu says, on the contrary, that it has proof that it is rather a failed rocket attack by the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad.
The number of 500 dead or injured was put forward by the Gaza authorities, without a precise toll being able to be established given the ongoing chaos.
The photos are bloodcurdling. Throughout Al-Ahli Hospital (an Anglican Episcopal hospital), civilians are bathed in their own blood on the floor. Caregivers are seen working with injured people or trying to resuscitate them. In the photos, injured children, alongside adults who we do not know if they are dead or alive.
A video from the hospital, which The Associated Press says it can confirm is authentic, shows the grounds of the facility littered with bodies torn apart by the explosion. Several dead bodies of children are seen in the images, alongside school children’s backpacks.
Several injured people were sent to another hospital in Gaza, itself barely functional after days of Israeli siege.
In addition to patients and caregivers, hundreds of Palestinian families have taken refuge in Gaza hospitals in recent days, wrongly believing they are safe.
“Let the whole world know: the barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital in Gaza and not the Israeli army,” responded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement from his office . “Those who brutally killed our children are killing their own children. »
“We will provide proof of our assertions in the coming hours,” Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, declared overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
REUTERS PHOTO
People injured in hospital strike
Spontaneous demonstrations in several countries
In Gaza, the West Bank, but also in Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Iran (in front of the French and British embassies in Tehran) and Libya, the strike against the hospital brought thousands of demonstrators to take the street by storm.
“The French and the Americans are allies of the Zionists,” protesters chanted in front of the French embassy in Tunis.
The anger was not only directed towards Israel and its Western allies. In the West Bank, violence broke out between demonstrators demanding the departure of Mahmoud Abbas (president of the Palestinian Authority at the head of this occupied territory) and security forces used tear gas. At 88 years old, Mr. Abbas is conspicuous by his absence and his virtual silence since the resumption of the war.
PHOTO JAAFAR ASHTIYEH, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Demonstration in Ramallah, West Bank
In the West Bank, three days of national mourning were declared following the attack on the Gaza hospital.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah called for a “day of anger”, citing “a massacre” and a “brutal crime” of which it accuses Israel.
At the start of the night, Jordan announced that it was canceling the summit in which American President Joe Biden, who was on his way to Israel, was then due to participate with King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinians in Gaza are still under an evacuation order decreed by Israel which required their departure to the south. Some 500,000 of them are said to have taken to the road.
The culprit one day identified?
The Canadian Michael Lynk, who served for six years, until 2022, as United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pleads for this tragedy to be the subject of “an international investigation. This attack, whether deliberate or resulting from negligence, is an absolute violation of international humanitarian law and could constitute a war crime,” he said. The Press.
“The international community, led by the United Nations Security Council, should demand an immediate ceasefire and the release of all Israeli civilian hostages,” as well as the establishment of a humanitarian aid corridor, he added.
From all sides, denunciations
Justin Trudeau said “no, it’s not legal” to bomb a hospital.
” The news [en provenance] of Gaza today are devastating. It’s horrible. This is unacceptable,” added the Prime Minister of Canada.
In a press release, Joe Biden said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion” of the hospital and “the terrible losses that resulted”.
The American president claims to have immediately spoken with the Israeli Prime Minister and with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
“Nothing can justify targeting civilians,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that “all light must be shed” on the attack.
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Children on board an ambulance leaving Al-Ahli Hospital
Describing the strike against the hospital as “totally unacceptable”, UN chief António Guterres offered his sincere condolences to the victims’ families and recalled that “hospitals, clinics, medical staff and medical facilities United Nations are explicitly protected by international law.
“Words fail me,” declared Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Last night, hundreds of people were killed in horrific ways. […] Once again, the most vulnerable [sont touchés]. This is totally unacceptable. »
The World Health Organization also condemned the attack. “We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health facilities, the cancellation of evacuation orders [vers le sud de la bande de Gaza] “, declared its leader, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
With Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, Reuters and Mélanie Marquis, The Press