BBC: Israel And Palestine Blame Each Other For Hospital Blast

About 500 people died.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health claims that the Israeli army attacked Al Ahli Arab Hospital, located in the central part of the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian sources, about 500 people were killed.

The Israeli military said the hospital tragedy was caused by rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman reports, citing local residents, that hundreds of internally displaced people were sheltering in the hospital.

He said footage from Al Ahli (the BBC cannot confirm it yet) showed scenes of chaos: bloodied and mutilated wounded people being carried out on stretchers in the dark. Bodies and wrecked cars can be seen in the rubble-strewn street outside.

Al Ahli Hospital is under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East (a province of the Anglican Communion).

British-Palestinian surgeon Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah said he was doing surgery at the hospital when the airstrike occurred. He said part of the hospital caught fire.

Gaza officials have already blamed the Israeli military for the airstrike and reported the death of at least 500 people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Al Ahli Hospital was destroyed by a missile fired by the Islamic Jihad group.

“Analysis of the IDF operational systems shows that the terrorists fired a missile salvo from the Gaza Strip, the missiles were flying in close proximity to Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip at the time of the hit,” the Israeli military said. “Intelligence from multiple sources that we have indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit a hospital in the Gaza Strip.”

Later on Tuesday, a war correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Times of Israel published a surveillance video that he believed should prove the conclusions by the IDF claim that Al Ahli Hospital was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza.

The video, said to have been recorded in the town of Netiv HaAsara near the northern border of the Gaza Strip, shows a missile salvo from the right side (that is, from the parts of Gaza closer to the sea) to the left, towards southern regions of Israel. A few seconds after the fiery tails of the missiles disappear into the sky, a powerful explosion is heard below, approximately under the trajectory of the missile.

In addition, the IDF published a diagram that allegedly shows the radar-detected trajectory of missiles launched from Gaza. Al Ahli Hospital, according to the diagram, is located under the trajectory or slightly to the side of it.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization denied the accusations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “barbaric terrorists” bear responsibility for the explosion at Al Ahli Hospital.

"We know from past conflicts with terrorists in Gaza that on average about 33% of the missiles they fire at us miss their target and hit Gaza," Mark Regev, an adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, told BBC.

After the explosion at Al Ahli Hospital, street demonstrations by Palestinian supporters began in many countries in the region, as well as in Europe.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Ramallah located on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Thousands of people are protesting in Turkey and Lebanon near the Israeli and US embassies. The police dispersed protesters with water cannons in Ankara and with tear gas in Beirut.

In Tunisia, protesters gathered near the French and British embassies and chanted “death to France!” and "death to Britain!" The US embassy in that country closed to the public last week as the war in Israel began.

Protests of various sizes took place in many European cities.

Biden’s summit cancelled

Jordan announced the cancellation of the four-way summit with the participation of US President Joe Biden. Before that, Palestinian head Mahmoud Abbas had already refused to participate in the summit.

“There is no point in talking about anything other than ending the war,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said when announcing the cancellation of the summit.

The president of Egypt and the king of Jordan were also going to take part in Thursday's summit together with Biden and Abbas.

As the BBC's State Department Correspondent Barbara Plett Usher reports, what happened in the hospital is the worst possible scenario for the American president, who is heading to Israel on a visit.

First, there was an explosion in a hospital - undoubtedly a civilian facility. Which, moreover, was filled not only with sick and wounded people but also with those who tried to hide from the war, counting on the “safety zone”.

Palestinians claim it was an Israeli airstrike. The Israelis say they are investigating the cause of the explosion.

Americans are likely to be extremely cautious in their assessments - or at least in their statements about who is to blame - until more details are disclosed.

However, the developments will change the agenda for Biden's visit: it will shift it towards security issues for Gaza civilians and complicate negotiations with Arab leaders in Amman.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has already cancelled a meeting with Biden that was supposed to take place in Jordan.