<\/p>\n
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said he was horrified after the deaths of hundreds of people<\/a> in a strike on a hospital in Gaza while Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar demanded that Israel be held accountable for its \u201cwar crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n The strike, which killed about 500, was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for the Oct 7 offensive by Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Palestinian Authority\u2019s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of \u201ca massacre\u201d at Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed \u201cbarbaric terrorists\u201d in Gaza had attacked the hospital, not Israel\u2019s military.<\/p>\n According to the Turkish aNews<\/em><\/a>, a Netanyahu aide, Hananya Naftali, had initially made a social media post attributing the hospital blast to the Israeli Air Force. He, however, swiftly deleted it and made another post<\/a> blaming Hamas. Other journalists pointed it out as well.<\/p>\n Reacting to the strike on the hospital, Guterres said, \u201cI am horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza today, which I strongly condemn.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law,\u201d he said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n In another tweet, he called for \u201can immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the epic human suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many lives \u2014 and the fate of the entire region \u2014 hang in the balance,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n Kakar also strongly condemned the strike. \u201cTargeting a hospital, a sanctuary for those in need, is an indefensible act of inhumanity. International humanitarian law give protection to hospitals and medical personnel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He demanded an end to \u201cindiscriminate targeting\u201d and urged the international community to act swiftly to stop the violence and hold those accountable responsible.<\/p>\n Kakar, who is in Beijing for the third Belt and Road Forum, also mentioned interacting with the UN secretary general. \u201cI urged him that global community should ask Israel to stop killing innocent Palestinians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In a subsequent post, he said that Israel must be \u201cheld accountable for its war crimes as it continues its unrelenting bombardment and siege of Gaza that has resulted in death, destruction and displacement\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe backers of Israeli occupation need to reconsider their policies which provide impunity to Israeli authorities in carrying out their campaign of terror against the people of Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that the \u201cheinous attack\u201d by Israel was not an act of self-defence. \u201cIt violates international humanitarian law and targeted innocent children, women, doctors, medical personnel, and displaced civilians seeking shelter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He called for an immediate halt to the \u201creign of violence and collective punishment against innocent Palestinians\u201d. Jilani said that Pakistan strongly condemned the continued siege and strikes on Gaza and was calling for an immediate ceasefire.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must not let human suffering continue any longer,\u201d he said, adding that the time to act was now.<\/p>\n The Foreign Office (FO) condemned the \u201cIsraeli strike\u201d in the strongest possible terms, saying that it was inhumane and indefensible.<\/p>\n \u201cThe indiscriminate targeting of civilian population and facilities is a grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes,\u201d the FO said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on the international community to take urgent measures to bring an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza and the impunity with which Israeli authorities have operated in the last few days,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n US President Joe Biden, who will be travelling to Israel later today, said he was \u201coutraged\u201d by the strike at the hospital and said he had directed his national security team to gather information about exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n \u201cI am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted,\u201d Biden said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s First Minister Humza Yousaf, meanwhile, said that the country was \u201cready to play its part\u201d to be the first in the United Kingdom to offer \u201csafety and sanctuary to the people of Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s trip to Israel and Jordan faltered before it got off the ground Tuesday, after the Amman leg was canceled following the strike on the hospital.<\/p>\n The trip was always set to be the riskiest of Biden\u2019s presidency as he tried to juggle support for Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks with efforts to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and to avert a wider war.<\/p>\n But his regional balancing act came undone on the eve of his visit with news of the hospital explosion.<\/p>\n As Biden, 80, climbed the steps of Air Force One, Jordan announced that a planned four-way summit with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egypt\u2019s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was off.<\/p>\n It would be held \u201cwhen the decision to stop the war and put an end to these massacres has been taken,\u201d said Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.<\/p>\n White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, however, told reporters aboard the presidential plane said that the Israelis \u201cfeel very strongly this was not caused by them\u201d.<\/p>\n He added that it was a \u201cmutual decision\u201d to cancel the Jordan trip after Abbas said he wanted to return home for three days of mourning, and that Biden would speak to him and Sisi by phone on the plane home.<\/p>\n Yet Biden will now be flying into an even more volatile situation than before, with the hospital strike sparking anger across the region.<\/p>\n Furious protesters tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman where Biden was due to meet the other leaders, while in Tehran hundreds rallied outside the French and British embassies.<\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah movement called for a \u201cday of rage\u201d over the strike to coincide with Biden\u2019s arrival, fueling fears of the very escalation by Tehran and its allies that Biden\u2019s visit is supposed to warn against.<\/p>\n The White House said Biden wanted to \u201ccontinue to stand in solidarity with Israel\u201d after Hamas burst through its heavily fortified Gaza border, shooting, stabbing and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.<\/p>\n Biden would hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and his war cabinet, as well as meeting the families of some of those killed and missing in the attacks, it said.<\/p>\n Kirby insisted however that Biden would ask Netanyahu \u201ctough questions\u201d about his plans for the conflict.<\/p>\n Palestinian group Islamic Jihad on Wednesday described as \u201clies\u201d the Israel army\u2019s accusations that it was responsible for the strike on the hospital.<\/p>\n The Israeli military had earlier denied responsibility for the strike at the hospital, suggesting it was hit by a failed rocket inside Gaza.<\/p>\n Later, it said that the strike was a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad Palestinian movement. \u201cThe hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n According to the Israeli army, \u201cintelligence from multiple sources we have \u2026 indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n Spokesman Daniel Hagari told a press briefing that at the time of the strike, the Israeli army was not conducting air operations near the hospital and the rockets that hit the building did not match theirs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Zionist enemy is trying hard to evade its responsibility for the brutal massacre he committed by bombing the Baptist Arab National Hospital in Gaza through his usual fabrication of lies, and through pointing the finger of blame at the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine,\u201d the Islamic Jihad said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe therefore affirm that the accusations put forward by the enemy are false and baseless,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n According to the statement, the hospital had been ordered to evacuate by Israel under threat of bombardment, and it was a bomb dropped by an Israeli army plane that caused the tragedy.<\/p>\n It said the hospital had \u201creceived public notice made global of evacuation under threat of bombing\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nBiden\u2019s Mideast trip upended by Gaza hospital strike<\/h2>\n
Islamic Jihad says Israel army accusation over Gaza hospital strike is \u2018lies\u2019<\/h2>\n