Moslemtoday.com : Israeli airstrikes targeted the Baptist Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza City killing around 500 Palestinians on Tuesday, October 17, 2023. The hospital was known to be overcrowded with patients and refugees.
The attack was the bloodiest incident in Gaza since Israel launched non-stop military operations, both ground and air, against the territory. The attack occurred a day before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.
There are scores of dismembered and crushed bodies, baths of blood,” said Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior member of Hamas, as reported by Arabnews, Tuesday, (17/10/2023).
Hamas said the bombings mostly killed people displaced by Israeli military operations, and the dead included patients, women and children.
A widely circulated video shows several ambulances arriving at the hospital carrying injured people. A man staggered, bleeding profusely from the head. A boy is carried on a stretcher.
Watch: A video captures the moment an Israeli strike hit the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in #Gaza leaving at least 500 people dead, according to a health ministry spokesman. https://t.co/MCXU6LGkna pic.twitter.com/EjqDAK8rdK
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 17, 2023
Arab countries, Iran and Türkiye quickly condemned the attack. The Palestinian prime minister called it a “terrible crime, genocide” and said countries that support Israel also bear responsibility.
Previously, the UN refugee agency UNRWA said Israeli airstrikes had also killed at least six people at one of its schools which served as a shelter for refugees.
“This is outrageous and again it shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians. No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UN facilities,” UNRWA said in a social media post.
Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli bombardment during the 11 days since the Hamas group fired thousands of rockets into Israeli territory on Saturday, October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,300 Israelis.
Israel then retaliated by razing parts of densely populated Gaza with airstrikes, driving about half of its 2.3 million residents from their homes and imposing a total blockade of the territory, closing borders, cutting off supplies of food, fuel and medical aid. ***
