Israel-Hamas conflict: what we know about the deadly strike that hit a hospital in Gaza

A deadly strike that raises many questions. At least 200 people were killed on Tuesday evening, October 17, in a shooting attack on the Ahli Arab hospital compound in the Gaza Strip. “We were operating in the hospital, there was a loud explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room. It’s a massacre,” said Doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah of Doctors Without Borders.

The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, for its part, indicated that “hundreds of victims” were “still in the rubble” of the Ahli Arab hospital, in central Gaza, where “200 300 people died. The Palestinian Red Crescent denounced a “war crime”, which caused “hundreds” of civilian victims, “including women, children, health personnel”.

For now, both Hamas and the Jewish state claim not to be behind this deadly strike. Late on Tuesday evening, after a new update on the situation at the hospital, the Israeli army reiterated that its armed forces had not struck the hospital. According to them, the building was hit by a “misfired rocket by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.”

Through the voice of its Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army even affirmed to our CNN colleagues that it was in possession of communications between militants in Gaza “saying that it was a Jihad event Islamic”, a terrorist organization allied with Hamas. She also said she had drone footage showing the impact of the strike on the hospital parking lot, but not on the hospital itself.

Islamic Jihad, for its part, described Israel's accusations as “lies” on Wednesday. “The Zionist enemy is trying, by fabricating lies, to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed by bombing the hospital and pointing the finger at Islamic Jihad,” the movement said in a statement. Islamist. “We affirm that these accusations are false,” he insisted.

International reactions were not long in coming. Russia called the strike a “crime” and an “act of dehumanization,” reports the Foreign Ministry cited by the RIA news agency. The Russian Foreign Ministry is urging the Jewish state to provide satellite images to prove that it was not behind the attack.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the “hundreds of Palestinian civilians killed in a strike” on the hospital, which he “strongly condemned” but without blaming anyone. the responsibility. Both France and Germany also said they were horrified by this strike but did not wish, at this stage, to clearly denounce a culprit.

American President Joe Biden, who is expected in Tel Aviv today, said he spoke “immediately after hearing the news” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion” and “the terrible losses that resulted.” The American head of state was to participate, during the day, in a quadripartite meeting with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. The latter has been postponed sine die and will be held “when the decision to stop the war and put an end to these massacres is taken,” declared the head of Jordanian diplomacy Ayman Safadi. The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the shooting against the hospital which it blamed on Israel.

Many countries in the Near and Middle East have, for their part, directly incriminated Israel. Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi declared a day of “public mourning” this Wednesday, October 18 and predicted that this attack would turn against the Jewish state and its American ally. “The flames of the American-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the wounded Palestinian victims in the hospital (...) in Gaza, will soon devour the Zionists,” he declared. In a statement, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced a “massacre (…), a hate crime against defenseless civilians and a serious violation (…) of international law”.

Saudi Arabia, which was in the process of normalizing its relations with Israel before the start of the conflict, for its part denounced a "violation of all international laws and standards", denouncing the continuation by the Hebrew state of "attacks against civilians". Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani declared three days of mourning in the country before calling in a statement for an “immediate and urgent resolution” from the UN Security Council to end the “ assault".

In several Arab countries, demonstrations broke out on Tuesday evening: in the streets of Amman, in Jordan or in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where clashes took place between demonstrators calling for the departure of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and its security forces. In Tunisia, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the French embassy and demanded the dismissal of the French and American ambassadors. “The French and the Americans are the allies of the Zionists,” chanted the demonstrators. Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered in front of the French and British embassies in Tehran on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. Likewise, several hundred people came out to demonstrate their anger in Libyan cities, particularly in the capital Tripoli.