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Risk of the conflict spreading after the hospital strike in Gaza

2023-10-18 09:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A rocket attack on a hospital in Gaza City risks undermining current diplomatic efforts. Militant Palestinians and Israel blamed each other for the rocket attack on the hospital, with several hundred dead and many injured. This was the only Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip, Al-Ahli Arab. The health authority in the Gaza Strip controlled by Islamist militant Hamas blamed the Israeli army for the strike. Israel rejected this accusation. The head of the Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared that "the whole world should know that it was the barbaric terrorists in Gaza who attacked the hospital in Gaza." It was not the Israeli army, Netanyahu stressed. "Those who brutally killed our children also kill their children."

"The hospital was hit by a deflected rocket of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization," the Israeli military announced Wednesday night. Israel has affirmed that it will make the evidence public. Previously, it was said that the data "points" to the responsibility of the terrorist organization, Islamic Jihad. After an additional verification of the operational systems and the Israeli secret service it was said "that the Israeli army did not hit the hospital in Gaza". The spokesman of the army, Danial Hagari, announced that evidence for this will be provided publicly. Military drone footage shows "some sort of target in the parking lot," according to Hagar. The army has intercepted a conversation of the Palestinian terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, in which the fighters admit the mistake in the strike. The military will release a recording of the conversation. The Ministry of Health, run by Hamas, announced that the number of victims reached the figure of 500 people. The data cannot be independently verified.

Blow to diplomatic efforts

The rocket attack on a hospital has caused shocked reactions around the world. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, despite the variant presented by Israel, expressed shock on X, the former Twitter platform. "My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are under the protection of international law."

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned the attack. "We demand the immediate protection of civilians and health care as well as the withdrawal of the evacuation rule," Ghebreyesus announced on the X platform, ex-twitter.

The attack undermines current international diplomatic efforts. Jordan canceled a meeting scheduled for today (18.10.) between King Abdullah II and the American president, Joe Biden. Joe Biden visits Israel today. The meeting, in which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would also participate, will take place when there is an agreement to stop the war and "this massacre", Jordanian Foreign Minister Aiman ??al-Safadi told Jordanian television, Al-Mamlaka.

Meanwhile, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, after the solidarity visit to Israel, is in Egypt on Wednesday to meet with the president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. In Tel Aviv, Scholz said he will talk with him about the humanitarian situation of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, but also about ways to free the 200 Hamas hostages, among whom there are also some Germans. Egypt is the only country that borders the Gaza Strip.

Arab states blame Israel for the attack

Arab states blamed Israel for the attack on the hospital. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced three days of mourning. In many Muslim countries there were protests after the attack on the hospital in Gaza. Saudi Arabia condemned that attack on the hospital as a "heinous crime" as well as "continuing attacks". The Arab League asked the West to stop the war./ DW