Israel-Hamas war latest update: Nearly 500 people are feared dead after a blast rocked Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City. The tragic incident comes amid Israel’s unprecedented air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. While Hamas has blamed Israel for bombing the hospital, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another Gaza-based militant outfit, was behind the attack.
The WHO has condemned the attack on Al Ahli Arab hospital, calling on both parties to ensure health care facilities are actively protected and never targeted.
“WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries,” it said in a statement.
The blast comes at time when Israel is facing criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to its war against Hamas. More than a million people have already been displaced and nearly 3,000 have been killed as Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets continued on the 13th consecutive day.
Israel has asked nearly half of the Gaza population living in the north to flee their homes and move to safer areas south of the Wadi Gaza. International agencies like the UN and the WHO has criticised Israel’s mass relocation orders, warning “catastrophic consequences”.
The latest incident of hospital bombing has triggered world-wide protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Hundreds of people have gathered in the West Bank and major cities around the world with several many world leaders condemning the blast. They have been calling for a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have called off their planned meeting with US President Joe Biden following the hospital bombing.
Biden is expected to land in Israel later today to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a show of solidarity with the Jewish state in its war against Hamas. The visit was aimed at balancing American support to Israel and the humanitarian crisis the war has caused.
Israel declared a war against Hamas following the brutal October 7 attack, in which more than 1,300 people were killed. Nearly two thousand Hamas militants invaded Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip border and brutally murdered civilians in the worst attack in the 75-year history of Israel. The militants have also kidnapped around 200 people, mostly civilians.