Tuesday night, an Israeli air raid on al-Ahli Arab Hospital killed more than 500 Palestinians.
Biden meets Netanyahu
President Biden landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, today, to meet PM Benjamin Netanyahu, less than a day after more than 500 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike at a hospital.
Without any proof to back up his claim, Biden said that the al-Ahli Arab Hospital bombing seems to be carried out by the “other team, not you”, indirectly putting the blame on Palestinians.
Read more: ‘Civilised world must unite to defeat Hamas’: Netanyahu meets Biden
Read more on false information from day 12:
Israel tries deflecting blame for hospital attack; evidence proves otherwise
“Time is OVER!”
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has called for unity across the world to stand up to Israel after the hospital bombing, calling it a “massacre of … innocent women and children”.
“After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than a thousand innocent women and children in the…hospital the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine,” he wrote on social media.’
پس از جنایت هولناک رژیم صهیونیستی در بمباران و قتلعام بیش از هزار نفر از زنان و کودکان بیگناه در بیمارستان #المعمدانی زمان برای اتحاد جهانی بشریت علیه این رژیم جعلی منفورتر از داعش و ماشین کشتارش فرارسیده است.
— H.Amirabdollahian امیرعبداللهیان (@Amirabdolahian) October 17, 2023
!Time is OVER
Iran condemns Israeli regime’s deadly attack on Palestinian hospital in Gaza
— Iran Foreign Ministry 🇮🇷 (@IRIMFA_EN) October 17, 2023
The spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in the strongest terms a horrendous crime committed by the Zionist regime during its attack on the Al-Ahil Hospital in Gaza.
The… pic.twitter.com/VT47T6ccNs
Protests across the world
The hospital bombing led to spontaneous protests across the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond but many ended with confrontations with security forces.
Palestinians got together in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Lebanese gathered in capital Beirut outside the US Embassy, hundreds gathered outside the French embassy in Tunis, all of which were interrupted and dispersed by the police.
Other major protests were recorded in Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq.
EU and Russia want facts
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is “saddened” by the recent hospital attack in Gaza.
She posted on X saying, “There is no excuse for hitting a hospital full of medical staff and civilians,
“All the facts have to be established and those responsible must be held accountable.”
I am saddened by the strike against the Al-Ahli hospital and the huge death toll.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 18, 2023
There is no excuse for hitting a hospital full of medical staff and civilians.
All the facts have to be established and those responsible must be held accountable.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has asserted that Israel must provide satellite images to prove their claims that they were not involved in the Gaza hospital attack.
RIA news agency quoted her as saying that “Russia classifies the attack as a crime and an act of dehumanisation”.
UN calls for ceasefire
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has now called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Israel-Gaza war.
I call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the epic human suffering.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 18, 2023
Too many lives – and the fate of the entire region – hang in the balance.
The UN Security Council is also said to vote on a Brazilian-drafted resolution on Wednesday to halt the escalation between Israel and Hamas and to continue humanitarian aid into Gaza Strip.
The head of World Health Organization (WHO) post on X saying, “We need violence on all sides to stop,” and the situation in Gaza is “spiralling out of control”.
“Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives. For four days, WHO supplies have been stuck at the border. We need immediate access to start delivering life-saving supplies.”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
The situation in #Gaza is spiralling out of control.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 18, 2023
Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives.
For 4 days @WHO supplies have been stuck at the border.
We need immediate access to start delivering life-saving supplies.
We need violence on all sides to stop.
Surgeries without anaesthesia
Gaza already lacks enough healthcare facilities due to the Israeli blockade and after the attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital, 350 people were rushed to al-Shifa Hospital which was already assisting a large number of wounded patients from other Israeli air strikes.
According to reports by the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra, some of the victims were decapitated, disembowelled or were missing limbs.
And because the number of patients is now beyond capacity, doctors are forced to perform surgeries on floors and in the halls, mostly without anaesthesia.
“We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need anaesthesia, we need everything,” Abu Selmia told The Associated Press.
“Viable” solution is needed, says El-Sisi
In a news conference in Cairo while visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President el-Sisi asked Israel to shift the affected Palestinians to Negev desert instead of expecting Egypt to host them.
“There is the Negev desert in Israel. The Palestinians can be moved to Negev desert until they [Israel] do what they wish to do with the military operatives in the Gaza Strip before returning [the Palestinians] back,” he said.
“If the Palestinians are transferred to Egypt, the military operation initiated by Israel may last for years and years to come. In this case, Egypt will continue to bear the consequences and Sinai will be a base for operations against Israel and in this case, Egypt will be labelled as a base for terrorists,” he said.
“The acts by Israel, cutting power, water, electricity is a means to forcibly transfer Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula, which we totally reject.”
Casualties, arrests
Israeli forces have detained 65 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and since October 7, the number has now reached 750 excluding the detained workers from Gaza which are yet to be confirmed.
Additionally, 61 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,250 injured.
As for Palestinians in Gaza, more than 3,300 have been killed while 13,000 injured, according to Palestinian health minister.
On the contrary, the death toll in Israel remains at 1,400, with another 3,500 injured.
Jordan cancels US summit
Biden was due to visit Jordan but after the hospital attack, the meeting was cancelled.
White House spokesperson John Kirby, however, said that the decision was “mutual” and that the reason was the declaration of a three-day mourning after the hospital attack.
Credit: Al Jazeera
