The bombing of a hospital in Gaza City that killed some 500 Palestinians on Tuesday has drawn widespread condemnation form global leaders a well as the World Health Organisation (WHO).

 

This is the deadliest single incident since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack in which more than 1300 Israelis were killed.

 

Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital, with the Palestinian Authority's health minister accusing Israel of causing a "massacre". Israel blamed the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital on a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which denied responsibility, a Reuters report said.

 

TV channels carried footage showing a frantic scene as rescue workers scoured blood-stained debris for survivors. Rescuers and civilians were shown carrying away victims in body bags. A Gaza civil defence chief gave a death toll of 300, while health ministry sources put it at 500.

 

"I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted," said US President Joe Biden.

 

"Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened. The 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."

 

WHO said in a statement that it strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. 

 

The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries, it said.

 

"The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military. The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.

 

"WHO calls for the immediate active protection of civilians and health care. Evacuation orders must be reversed. International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted," it said.

 

"The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF. Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children," said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. 

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said: "I call on all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza."