Protesters clash with Lebanese security forces on outside the US Embassy over the Gaza hospital attack
New Delhi:
A strike on a Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 500 people, on Tuesday, has sparked outrage around the globe. While the Palestine group Hamas has blamed Israel for the deadly strike, the Israeli Army said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, an ally of the Hamas group.
World leaders have condemned the Gaza hospital bombing, believed to be one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since Israel launched a campaign in retaliation for a deadly Hamas gun rampage.
US President Joe Biden, who is on his way to Israel, said he is “outraged and deeply saddened” by the attack.
Meanwhile, protests were held in several Middle East countries, Israel’s embassies in Turkey and Jordan and near the US embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas toward demonstrators, reported Reuters.
Here’s how world leaders reacted to the Gaza hospital attack:
Israel
Blaming the “terrorists in Gaza” for the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza and not the IDF. Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”
The Israeli Defence spokesperson said that the intelligence from multiple sources they have in their hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.
Iran
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of “public mourning” on Wednesday and said the strike on the hospital would turn against Israel and its US ally.
“The flames of the US-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the Palestinian victims injured at the… hospital in Gaza, will soon consume the Zionists,” Raisi said, according to the IRNA agency, reported AFP.
“Iran is in mourning,” he added.
France
“Nothing can justify a strike against a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians. France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza which caused so many Palestinian victims. We think of them,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X, formerly Twitter.
“Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay.”
European Union
EU chief Charles Michel said that targeting civilian infrastructure in Gaza breaks international law. “An attack against a civilian infrastructure is not in line with international law,” Michel said after a videoconference of EU leaders.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell later wrote on social media that “the news coming from the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza adds horror to the tragedy unfolding before our eyes since days.”
Syria
Blaming the Western countries, especially the US for the Gaza attack, Syria said, “Syria holds Western countries responsible especially the United States of America, for this massacre and others, since they are a partner of the Zionist entity across all organized operations designed to kill Palestinians.”
African Union
The African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat accused Israel of a “war crime” following the deadly strike.
“There are no words to fully express our condemnation of Israel’s bombing of a #Gaza hospital today, killing hundreds of people,” Faki said on X, formerly Twitter, calling for the international community to act.
Jordan, Qatar
Israel bears “responsibility for this grave incident,” a Jordanian foreign ministry statement said, “strongly condemning” the incident.
Amman subsequently announced the cancellation of a summit on brokering peace in the region due to the involvement of Joe Biden, who postponed his trip to Amman in response.
Qatar’s foreign ministry called the Gaza hospital attack a “brutal massacre” and “a heinous crime against defenceless civilians”.
The Gulf state called the attack a “blatant violation of the provisions of international law” and a “dangerous escalation in the course of the confrontations”.
Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the incident as “the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values”, in a message on social media.
“I invite all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” Erdogan said on X, formerly Twitter.
United Nations
The UN human rights chief Volker Turk called the hospital strike totally unacceptable, insisting that the perpetrators must be held to account. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the Gaza hospital explosion incident and said that he is “horrified” by the killings of Palestinian civilians.
World Health Organisation
“WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital,” the UN health agency WHO said in a statement.
“The hospital was operational, with patients, health- and caregivers, and internally-displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.”
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by Taliban forces in 2012, urged the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and reiterated the call for a ceasefire.
“I’m horrified to see the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza and unequivocally condemn it. I urge the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and reiterate the call for a ceasefire. I am directing $300K to three charities helping Palestinian people under attack,” she said in a video message on X.
Protests Over Gaza Hospital Attack
Thousands of protesters hit the streets across the Middle East and North Africa to show their outrage in the aftermath of the strike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital. Several hundred people protested in Tripoli and other Libyan cities late Tuesday over the strike, , reported news agency AFP.
Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah who were throwing rocks and chanting against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled, reported Reuters.
Television footage showed protests in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taz, as well as in the Moroccan and Iraqi capitals.
Spontaneous protests also erupted in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, as well as in West Bank cities like Ramallah, media reports said.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday, reported AFP.
Promoted
“Death to France and England,” protesters shouted, throwing eggs at the walls of the French embassy compound in Tehran.
Several thousand people also gathered in Palestine Square in central Tehran to voice their anger, according to an AFP photographer.
