Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital kills hundreds, as Biden heads to Mideast

KHAN YOUNIS (AP):

The health ministry run by Hamas said an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds of people. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars.

The health ministry said at least 500 people had been killed. Photos and video purportedly from al-Ahli Hospital on social media showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital’s grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Around them in the grass were blankets, school backpacks and other belongings. The images could not immediately be independently verified.

The strike came as the US was trying to convince Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which has been under a complete siege since Hamas’ deadly rampage last week. It also came a day before President Joe Biden was due to visit the region to show support for Israel and try to prevent the war from spreading.

Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge in al-Ahli and other hospitals in Gaza City in past days, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip. Hamas called Tuesday’s hospital strike “a horrific massacre”.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli airstrike.”

In protest at the reported strike, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled his participation in a meeting with Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egypt’s president set for Wednesday in Amman, Jordan, to discuss the war. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority runs parts of the West Bank.

Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities, including Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces, who fired back with stun grenades.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, airstrikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure in the southern half of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military had told Palestinians to evacuate to.

Before the al-Alhi Hospital deaths, Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said. Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

Israel sealed off Gaza after Hamas stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took some 200 captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”

In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighbouring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.