(Dubai) Arab countries, whether signatories to peace with Israel or not, unanimously attributed the deadly explosion in a Gaza hospital to the Israeli army, despite Israel’s denial.
At least 200 people were killed Tuesday evening in a strike on the grounds of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, the Islamist organization in power in the Gaza Strip. Other estimates give a higher toll.
Hamas blamed Israel for the strike and Islamic Jihad called the Israeli state’s accusations “lies”, naming it as being behind it, while international condemnation increased.
“Deliberate bombing”
The United Arab Emirates, which joined with Russia in calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, condemned the “Israeli attack” and deplored the “human losses”.
Anwar Gargash, advisor to the Emirati president, stressed on X (formerly Twitter) that “the human drama in Gaza underlines the need to give priority to the protection of civilians”.
The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs “expressed the strong condemnation and denunciation of the Kingdom of Bahrain of the Israeli bombing,” reported the official Bna news agency.
These two Gulf countries normalized their relations with Israel in 2020 by signing the so-called Abraham Accords.
Morocco, another country that joined these agreements, also blamed Israel, as did Egypt, the first Arab country to normalize relations with Israel in 1979.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi condemned in the strongest terms “the Israeli bombing” of the Ahli Arab hospital, which caused “hundreds of innocent victims” among the Palestinian citizens of Gaza.
He saw, in this “deliberate bombing”, a “flagrant violation of international law”.
“Heinous crime”
Saudi Arabia, which suspended talks on normalization with Israel after the outbreak of war on October 7, called the strike a “heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces.”
The Saudi Council of Ministers on Monday condemned in unequivocal terms Israeli reprisals against the Gaza Strip and called for the protection of Palestinian civilians.
Jordan, which has also normalized its relations with the Israeli state, declared that Israel “bears responsibility for this serious incident”.
The Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called the explosion a “war crime, crime against humanity and state terrorism.”
Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which brings together the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf, said it was a “violation of human rights”.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the Arab League, called on Tuesday “the West to immediately end the tragedy” in Gaza. “Our Arab mechanisms identify war crimes, and their perpetrators will not be able to escape justice,” he warned.
Mourning and protests
Among the Arab countries not signatories to peace with Israel, Qatar, known to be close to Hamas, Kuwait and the Sultanate of Oman, also described the strike as an “Israeli attack”.
Qatar denounced in the “harshest terms the Israeli raid”, seeing it as a “heinous crime against civilians” and a “brutal massacre”.
Kuwait spoke out against a “wild raid”, attributing it to “Israeli occupation forces”.
The same terms appeared in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman which hosted a GCC ministerial meeting on Tuesday evening devoted to the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The meeting resulted in an agreement to dedicate $100 million to an emergency aid program for civilians in Gaza.
Among other reactions, that of Mauritania, which spoke of “genocide” and declared three days of national mourning.
The government of western Libya denounced “a crime that surpasses all understanding”. Both Iraq and Algeria accused Israel and condemned the strikes.
In Tunis, demonstrators expressed their anger in front of the French embassy, while in Lebanon, pro-Iranian Hezbollah called for a “day of anger” on Wednesday.
The Yemeni Houthi rebels, close to Iran and who control the northern part of the country, also called for demonstrations on Wednesday afternoon to denounce “the Israeli-American massacre” in Gaza.