Israel-Hamas War Live Updates: Anger after Israeli strike kills 500, US President heads to Israel, Deaths from Gaza hospital blast unacceptable says UN Human Rights chief
Israel-Hamas War Live Updates: Anger after Israeli strike kills 500, US President heads to Israel, Deaths from Gaza hospital blast unacceptable says UN Human Rights chief
Israel-Hamas War Live Updates
Israel-Hamas war updates: Biden heads to Israel as blast at Gaza hospital kills hundreds
The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 500 people were killed Tuesday when an airstrike hit a hospital compound in the center of Gaza City. But Israeli officials deny targeting the hospital and say they believe the blast was caused by a rocket from Hamas or Islamic Jihad that fell short and struck the site.
News of the deadly explosion came just hours before President Biden departed for Israel for a visit Wednesday to deliver a message of support to a key U.S. ally following Hamas’ terror rampage in southern Israel. Mr. Biden had also planned to meet with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority on a stop in Jordan, but that meeting was canceled in the wake of the hospital tragedy.
Ahead of the president’s visit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. and Israel had “agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multinational organizations to reach civilians in Gaza,” the small, densely packed Palestinian territory that has been run by Hamas for almost two decades.
Relentless Israeli airstrikes and a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed by Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, have driven roughly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes and created a humanitarian crisis as food, fuel and water all run desperately short.
Biden plans to ask Israel tough questions “as a friend” during Tel Aviv visit, White House says
US President Joe Biden plans to ask “tough questions” as a “friend” to Israel when he spends his Wednesday in Tel Aviv — a trip meant as a forceful public show of support, but also a push for easing a growing humanitarian crisis.
Biden will first meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a restricted bilateral meeting, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One in a preview of Wednesday’s trip. That meeting will later broaden to include other US officials and the Israeli War Cabinet.
UN Human Rights chief says deaths from Gaza hospital blast are “unacceptable”
UN Human Rights chief Volker Tur said the Gaza hospital blast that left at least hundreds of people dead was “unacceptable,” according to a statement released on Tuesday from the Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.
“Words fail me. Tonight, hundreds of people were killed –- horrifically -– in a massive strike … including patients, healthcare workers and families that had been seeking refuge in and around the hospital. Once again the most vulnerable. This is totally unacceptable,” Turk said.
The US is analyzing Israeli intelligence about Gaza hospital blast
The US is analyzing intelligence provided by Israel on the explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, according to an Israeli official and another source familiar with the matter.
“There have been conversations between the Israeli side and the American side,” said Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We have shared the knowledge that we have — the information we have — with the Americans.”
Gaza hospital blast leaves hundreds dead as Israeli blockade cripples medical response. Here’s the latest
Palestinian officials said hundreds were killed by a massive blast at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, as humanitarian concerns mount over Israel’s deprivation of food, fuel and electricity to the enclave’s population.
Here are key things to know about today’s developments:
The blast: Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was sheltering thousands of displaced people when it was bombed Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. Many victims are still under the rubble, it added.
Hamas, which controls the enclave, said more than 500 people were killed by the bombing. The Palestinian Health Ministry earlier said preliminary estimates indicate that between 200 to 300 people died in the attack.
Palestinian officials blamed ongoing Israeli airstrikes for the lethal incident. But the Israel Defense Forces has “categorically” denied any involvement in the hospital attack, blaming instead a “failed rocket launch” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a rival Islamist militant group in Gaza.
Impacted hospitals: Gaza has been under siege by Israel for more than a week, in response to the deadly incursion by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the coastal enclave, home to 2.2 million people. Hospitals meanwhile are struggling to tend to the wounded across the territory, operating with shortages of electricity and water.
Israeli bombardment has killed at least 3,000 people, including 1,032 girls and 940 boys, and wounded 12,500 in Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Tuesday. Casualties in Gaza over the past 10 days have now surpassed the number of those killed during the 51-day Gaza-Israel conflict in 2014.
While the IDF has said it does not target hospitals, the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have struck medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.
Health services within Gaza are on the brink and food and water supplies are running low. Twenty out of 23 hospitals were offering partial services because fuel reserves are “almost totally depleted,” the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned on Tuesday.
Closed crossing: Urgent calls for help are growing on both sides of a closed crossing as aid amasses on the Egyptian side of the border. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said the the United States and Israel “have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza.”
But on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, a miles long convoy of humanitarian assistance awaiting entry into Gaza, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN that “until now, there is no safe passage that has been granted” as they do not “have any authorization or clear, secure routes for those convoys to be able to enter safely and without any possibility of their being targeted.”
Protests break out around Middle East and North Africa after Gaza hospital blast
Several countries in the Middle East saw protesters march after hundreds of people died in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Israel and Hamas each blamed the other side for the blast.
Preliminary estimates indicate hundreds of people have been killed in the explosion at the Gaza hospital, which was sheltering thousands of displaced people who were forcibly evacuated from their homes by the “occupation,” the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement.
In Lebanon, hundreds of protesters gathered in the square that leads to the US embassy north of Beirut on Tuesday and tried to break through security barriers, according to a CNN team there.
In Iraq, hundreds of people took to the streets in Baghdad chanting anti-Israel slogans. Security officials in Baghdad told CNN that dozens of protesters attempted to cross a bridge that leads to Green Zone, but security forces prevented them from crossing it. Baghdad’s Green Zone houses Iraqi government offices and several embassies, including US embassy.
In Iran, protests also took place outside the French and British embassies in Tehran, the country’s cemoapital. Demonstrators could be heard chanting “death to France, England, America, and the Zionists,” according to a video published by Iran state-run RNA news on Wednesday morning.
Rallies also took place in other cities, including Esfahan and Qom.
In Tunisia, hundreds of people rallied in several areas in Tunis, the capital, following the hospital blast, according to the state-run TAP news agency on Tuesday. TAP said “mass protests were held on Tuesday night,” in several areas “in solidarity with the Palestinian people” and against the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Protests reported near NATO base in Turkey’s Malatya
We are getting reports of angry protesters massing near a NATO facility in Turkey’s Malatya province, where US servicemen are believed to be also stationed.
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that the demonstrators gathered outside Kurecik Radar Station to denounce the deadly air strike on a hospital in Gaza, which Palestinian authorities blame on Israel.
A video clip posted by Al Jazeera Arabic on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, showed demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans, as Turkish police stood behind guardrails to protect the NATO facility.
Anti-tank missile fired at Israeli forces on south Lebanon border
Israeli forces say they have responded with artillery fire after coming under attack along the border with Lebanon in the Shtoula area of northern Israel.
An anti-tank weapon was fired at Israeli positions and shelling was directed at the source of the attack, a spokesperson for Israel’s military said.
There were no initial reports of casualties.
Russia proposes adding condemnation of hospital attack to Security Council resolution draft
Russia has proposed the addition of a condemnation of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital attack in a Brazilian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution.
“Today we supplemented the amendment, which concerns the condemnation of the strikes on Gaza with the condemnation of the strike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations, said.
The body is expected to vote on the resolution on Wednesday.
A Russian-drafted resolution calling for a ceasefire failed at the Security Council on Monday.
Protests continue in Cairo after deadly Gaza strike
Egyptians continue to take to the streets in the country’s capital, and other parts of the country early on Wednesday, amid simmering anger over the deadly strike in Gaza.
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that Egyptian opposition parties led protests in front of the US embassy in Cairo, in which several political and civic movement figures participated.
In Giza, dozens went out in a night march denouncing Israel.
Egyptian activists posted on their pages on the social networking site, Facebook, video clips of a mass demonstration that began in Giza’s al-Hosary Square, denouncing the Gaza attack, which Palestinian officials blame on Israel.
Amnesty chief decries ‘cost’ of ‘unreserved support for Israel’
Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, has said that the reported deaths of hundreds at a Gaza hospital were the “cost” of “unreserved support for Israel” from the US and European Union.
Callamard described the bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital as “horrific” in comments she posted on X soon after reports emerged of hundreds of patients and medical workers killed.
“This is the cost of the US and EU unreserved support for Israel: more civilians killed; more war crimes; more, more, more,” she said.
Rights groups want UK to stop selling Israel weapons
Palestinian and United Kingdom human rights organisations are calling on the UK government to stop selling weapons to Israel.
Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq and the UK based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) have written to Kemi Badenoch, the UK Secretary of State for International Trade asking her to “suspend all weapons export licences to Israel”.
The rights groups say that the UK’s own licensing criteria and its commitment to the Arms Trade Treaty mean that “weapons may not be exported where there is a clear risk they might be used in violations of international law.”
The organisations also added that a judicial review challenge would be brought before the UK High Court if the UK failed to meet its obligations.
We’ve written to Badenoch to ask if she has any response to the their letter and will let you know when we hear back.
(With Inputs From Agencies)