Outrage, condemnation over deadly Gaza hospital strike

AFP | Paris, France

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A strike on a Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 200 people has provoked outrage and condemnation from around the world, with protests on the streets of Amman, Tunis, Beirut and Tehran.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the territory, accused Israel of being behind the explosion. The Israeli army blamed it on a misfired rocket attack by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has described the accusations as "lies".

Here are some of the major reactions:

- UN -

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza".

Guterres "strongly condemned" the strike but without attributing responsibility.

- 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.

- Arab League -

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said "the West must stop this tragedy immediately".

"Our Arab mechanisms document war crimes, and their perpetrators will not be able to escape justice," he warned.

- Egypt -

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned in the strongest terms "the Israeli bombing" of the Ahli hospital, which led to "the deaths of hundreds of innocent victims" among the Palestinians in Gaza.

He called the "deliberate bombing" a "clear violation of international law".

- EU -

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers "there is no excuse for hitting a hospital full of civilians" and that "fact need to be established" and "all those responsible must be held accountable".

Earlier, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell deplored that "once again, innocent civilians pay the highest price."

"The responsibility for this crime must be clearly established & the perpetrators held accountable," he wrote on X.

- France -

French President Emmanuel Macron said "nothing can justify targeting civilians" and that "humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay".

- Germany -

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "horrified" by the strike and wrote on X that "a thorough investigation of the incident is imperative".

- Hezbollah -

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Tuesday called for a "day of rage" to condemn the strike, blaming Israel for what it called a "massacre".

"Let tomorrow, Wednesday, be a day of rage against the enemy," Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said in a statement, calling the explosion a "brutal crime".

Hundreds of demonstrators scuffled with Lebanese security forces outside the US embassy in the Beirut suburb of Awkar late Tuesday, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

- ICRC -

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the strike, saying "hospitals should be sanctuaries to preserve human life, not scenes of death and destruction".

- Indonesia -

Indonesia said the strike "clearly violates international humanitarian law".

"Indonesia also urges the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to immediately take concrete steps to stop attacks and acts of violence in Gaza," the foreign ministry said.

- Iran -

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of "public mourning" on Wednesday and said the strike at 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.

Protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies and in Palestine Square in Tehran to voice their anger.

- Iraq -

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani called in a statement for an "immediate and urgent resolution" from the UN Security Council to put an end to the "aggression".

The government has declared three days of mourning for the victims.

- Jordan -

Israel bears "responsibility for this grave incident," a Jordanian foreign ministry statement said, "strongly condemning" the strike.

Amman subsequently announced the cancellation of a summit on brokering peace in the region due to the involvement of US President Joe Biden, who postponed his trip to Amman in response.

Dozens of protesters attempted unsuccessfully to storm the Israeli embassy compound in Amman an AFP journalist said.

- MSF -

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was "horrified by the recent bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans".

- Qatar -

Qatar's foreign ministry called the strike "a brutal massacre" and "a heinous crime against defenceless civilians".

In a statement, the Gulf state called the explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital a "blatant violation of the provisions of international law" and a "dangerous escalation in the course of the confrontations".

- Russia -

The foreign ministry said the strike was a "crime" and "act of dehumanisation".

- Saudi Arabia -

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia condemned the strike as "a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms", denouncing Israel's "continuous attacks against civilians".

- Spain -

Spain's foreign ministry condemned "the terrible massacre... All our solidarity with the innocent civilian victims."

"Hospitals must never be a target," Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares separately wrote on X.

- Tunisia -

Hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside the French embassy in Tunisia on Tuesday, also denouncing the US.

"The French and Americans are allies of Zionists," demonstrators shouted, according to an AFP journalist.

Protesters demanded the recall of both countries' ambassadors and shouted: "No American embassy on Tunisian territory."

- Turkey -

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the strike as "the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values".

"I invite all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza," Erdogan wrote on X.

- United States -

President Joe Biden said he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion" and "the terrible loss of life that resulted".

Biden said he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "immediately upon hearing this news."

- WHO -

The chief of the World Health Organization warned that "The situation in #Gaza is spiralling out of control".

"We need violence on all sides to stop," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. "Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives."

"We need immediate access to start delivering life-saving supplies."