Hundreds feared dead in Gaza hospital explosion amid conflicting accusations

An explosion at a hospital sheltering displaced people in Gaza has reportedly killed hundreds, threatening to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian enclave and cause the war between Israel and Hamas to spread.

The Gaza Strip’s Hamas-controlled government said the Tuesday evening bombing of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital was an Israeli air strike and had killed more than 500 people. The Israeli military, however, blamed the blast on a failed missile launch by the Islamic Jihad group.

The explosion happened on the eve of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel to reaffirm his unconditional backing for the country’s military campaign after Hamas’s attacks earlier this month, upending his efforts to keep the conflict contained and ensure civilians are protected.

Mr. Biden will not make a second stop on the trip, a planned summit in Amman, Jordan, with King Abdullah II, Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Mr. Abbas had already pulled out of the meeting and protesters tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman. Jordan’s foreign minister said his government had called off the meeting.

“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,” Mr. Biden said in a statement Tuesday as he left Washington for Tel Aviv, where he will meet Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “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.”

Mr. Biden said he had spoken with Mr. Netanyahu and King Abdullah, and had ordered his national security officials to “continue gathering information about what exactly happened.”

If the explosion’s casualty numbers are confirmed, it would represent the deadliest single incident for Palestinians in the series of wars Israel has fought with Gaza since Hamas took over the enclave in 2007.

Photos and videos on social media showed a huge fire in the courtyard of the hospital after the explosion, with dozens of dead and injured scattered around, including children. “We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room,” Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders), wrote in a social media post. “This is a massacre.”

In addition to patients and doctors, the hospital was sheltering an estimated 5,000 displaced people, who had abandoned their homes across Gaza amid the Israeli bombardment. They were gathered in the hospital courtyard, believing that medical facilities would not be bombing targets.

The World Health Organization said the hospital was among 20 in northern Gaza that faced evacuation orders from the Israeli army. The orders were impossible to obey because of the constant bombing, the critical condition of many patients and the lack of ambulances, staff and beds, the WHO said.

“The reality is that there’s been relentless bombardment in Gaza over the last week, and the violence on all sides has to stop,” said Mike Ryan, the WHO emergencies director, in a late-night press conference in Geneva after the explosion. “The very place that can save the life of an innocent civilian can become a place of death.”

In a statement, the Red Crescent condemned the explosion as a “war crime” and called for the attack on Gaza to stop.

“The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, adding that “international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases. There are rules around wars and it’s not acceptable to hit a hospital.”

The Israeli Defence Forces said Islamic Jihad had fired a barrage of missiles toward Israel in the vicinity of Al-Ahli and that one of them had fallen back to earth and landed on the hospital. “The entire world should know: it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Mr. Abbas declared three days of mourning. In Ramallah, the West Bank town where he is based, rock-throwing crowds took to the street calling for his ouster for being too co-operative with Israel.

The hospital, meanwhile, was not the only refugee shelter to be bombed on Tuesday: a missile killed at least six people and injured dozens more at a United Nations school during an Israeli bombardment of central Gaza. At least 4,000 people were sheltering at the school at the time.

“This is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (known as UNRWA), in a statement. “No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities.”

The bombings could increase the peril of Mr. Biden’s extraordinary trip, which will put a sitting U.S. president in close proximity to an active war zone. Intended to solidify U.S. support for Israel, the journey could make the President appear responsible for a potentially protracted fight he cannot control. Israel is expected to launch a ground invasion of Gaza in the coming days with a goal of destroying Hamas, but what will happen after is unknown.

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Mr. Biden has rushed ammunition and missiles to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis, promised anything the country needs and is poised to ask Congress for billions of dollars worth of further aid. He has also forcefully condemned the attacks and vowed to fight antisemitism.

The President dispatched two groups of warships to the region in a bid to deter Israel’s enemies, including Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which it funds, from getting involved in the fight. Border clashes continued in northern Israel on Tuesday, with forces on the Lebanese side firing an anti-tank missile at an Israeli village and Israeli tanks returning fire. Hezbollah called for Wednesday to be “a day of unprecedented anger” against Mr. Biden’s visit.

The Biden administration has also been involved in efforts to get back the nearly 200 hostages, including more than a dozen Americans Hamas captured in its attack, but has kept quiet on what specifically that involvement entails.

So far, Mr. Biden has been unable to open up a humanitarian corridor to get aid into Gaza, where more than 3,000 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes and Israel is blockading shipments of water, food and fuel. He has also been unable to evacuate an estimated 500 U.S. citizens out of the besieged enclave.

The Biden administration has said the President will be briefed on Israel’s military plans for Gaza, get a better idea what the country needs from the U.S. and will push for humanitarian safe zones in the enclave. “The President will hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week.

Ghaith al-Omari, a former official with the Palestinian Authority, said Mr. Biden appears to have two aims in his visit: to back Israel and to minimize civilian casualties.

“The visit itself is remarkable, so early on in the war. That sends a message,” Mr. al-Omari, now a fellow with the Washington Institute, said in an interview. “What happens now depends on how angry, how shocked the Israelis are. It’s going to be a difficult balance to support Israel but get them to exercise some restraint.”

Hospitals and schools in Gaza Strip

supervised by United Nations Relief and

Works Agency (UNRWA)

Hospital

School

LEBANON

WEST

BANK

Jerusalem

GAZA

STRIP

ISRAEL

EGYPT

JORDAN

50 KM

Military base

Zikim

Border crossing

ISRAEL

Sderot

GAZA STRIP

Israeli-

ordered

evacuation

zone

Closed

military

zone

Jabalia camp

Refugee

camps

Beach camp

Gaza City

Nahal Oz

Main

evacuation

routes

Be’eri

Wadi Gaza

Nuseirat camp

Bureij camp

Re’im

Al-Maghazi camp

Deir El-Balah camp

Kisufim

Khan Younis

Khan Younis camp

Sufa

Rafah

Rafah camp

North

EGYPT

5 KM

UNRWA statistics for refugee camps

As of July, 2023

Number of people in camps

Refugees registered with UNRWA, in thousands

Rafah

133.3

Jabalia

116.0

Beach

90.7

Khan Younis

88.9

Nuseirat

85.4

Bureij

46.6

Al-Maghazi

33.3

Deir El-Balah

26.7

UNRWA schools in camps

18

Rafah

Jabalia

26

26

Beach

Khan Younis

20

Nuseirat

26

12

Bureij

Al-Maghazi

8

13

Deir El-Balah

UNRWA hospitals in camps

Rafah

2

1

Jabalia

Beach

1

Khan Younis

3

Nuseirat

2

Bureij

1

Al-Maghazi

1

Deir El-Balah

1

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAPS; GRAPHIC NEWS; The Humanitarian Data Exchange; United nations relief and works agency; new york times

Hospitals and schools in Gaza Strip supervised by

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

Hospital

School

LEBANON

WEST

BANK

Jerusalem

GAZA

STRIP

ISRAEL

EGYPT

JORDAN

50 KM

Military base

Zikim

Border crossing

ISRAEL

Sderot

GAZA STRIP

Israeli-

ordered

evacuation

zone

Closed

military

zone

Jabalia camp

Refugee

camps

Beach camp

Gaza City

Nahal Oz

Main

evacuation

routes

Be’eri

Wadi Gaza

Nuseirat camp

Bureij camp

Re’im

Al-Maghazi camp

Deir El-Balah camp

Kisufim

Khan Younis

Khan Younis camp

Sufa

Rafah

Rafah camp

North

EGYPT

5 KM

UNRWA statistics for refugee camps

As of July, 2023

Number of people in camps

Refugees registered with UNRWA, in thousands

133.3

Rafah

Jabalia

116.0

Beach

90.7

88.9

Khan Younis

Nuseirat

85.4

46.6

Bureij

Al-Maghazi

33.3

Deir El-Balah

26.7

UNRWA schools in camps

18

Rafah

Jabalia

26

26

Beach

20

Khan Younis

26

Nuseirat

12

Bureij

8

Al-Maghazi

13

Deir El-Balah

UNRWA hospitals in camps

2

Rafah

1

Jabalia

1

Beach

3

Khan Younis

2

Nuseirat

1

Bureij

1

Al-Maghazi

1

Deir El-Balah

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAPS; GRAPHIC NEWS; The Humanitarian Data Exchange; United nations relief and works agency; new york times

Hospitals and schools in Gaza Strip supervised by

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

LEBANON

Hospital

School

Mediterranean

Sea

Military base

Zikim

Border crossing

ISRAEL

Sderot

WEST

BANK

GAZA STRIP

Jerusalem

GAZA

STRIP

Israeli-

ordered

evacuation

zone

Closed

military

zone

Detail

Jabalia camp

ISRAEL

Refugee

camps

Beach camp

Gaza City

Nahal Oz

EGYPT

JORDAN

50 KM

Main

evacuation

routes

UNRWA statistics for

refugee camps

As of July, 2023

Be’eri

Wadi Gaza

Number of people in camps

Refugees registered with UNRWA,

in thousands

Nuseirat camp

Bureij camp

Rafah

133.3

Jabalia

116.0

Re’im

Al-Maghazi camp

Beach

90.7

Khan Younis

88.9

Deir El-Balah camp

Nuseirat

85.4

Kisufim

Bureij

46.6

Al-Maghazi

33.3

Deir El-Balah

26.7

UNRWA schools in camps

18

Rafah

Jabalia

26

Khan Younis

26

Beach

Khan Younis camp

Khan Younis

20

Nuseirat

26

12

Bureij

Al-Maghazi

8

13

Deir El-Balah

Sufa

UNRWA hospitals in camps

Rafah

Rafah

2

Rafah camp

1

Jabalia

Beach

1

Khan Younis

3

Nuseirat

2

Bureij

1

North

EGYPT

Al-Maghazi

1

5 KM

Deir El-Balah

1

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: OPENSTREETMAPS; GRAPHIC NEWS; The Humanitarian Data Exchange; United nations relief and works agency; new york times

Ned Lazarus, an expert in international affairs at George Washington University, said Mr. Biden’s difficulty getting aid flowing so far likely has to do with specific conditions at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. There are fears, for instance, that Hamas could try to hijack the aid or that convoys could come under Israeli bombardment.

“Biden is in some ways taking a significant risk by personally going to the scene of a rapidly escalating war. It’s a bold move, because no one has control over how events will develop,” he said. “He’s putting his name on the war also.”

Prof. Lazarus said Mr. Biden’s staunch and often emotional support for Israel has made him “the most popular leader in that country,” particularly by contrast with Mr. Netanyahu, whose government has received public fury for failing to detect or prevent Hamas’s attack. “Biden’s speeches have struck a very deep chord with Israelis.”

Dozens of trucks are currently blocked on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, filled with emergency supplies from WHO and other agencies but unable to enter Gaza. “The conditions do not exist right now inside Gaza in order to bring aid in and distribute it safely,” Dr. Ryan said. “There must be a cessation of the bombing to allow that assistance to get in.”

Food, water and medicine inside Gaza are almost depleted, he said. “Every second we waste, we lose lives.”

Dominic Allen, another UN official in Israel, said about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to access safe medical care. More than 150 babies are being born in Gaza every day amid the air strikes and as hospitals are running perilously low on medicine, electricity and clean water.

He said the UN has received reports of water being rationed down to one litre per person per day, a third of what a pregnant woman needs to survive, not including cooking and cleaning needs. There is only enough fuel in Gaza to provide electricity for another 24 hours.

“This is a health care system that was already on its knees,” said Mr. Allen in an interview in East Jerusalem. “Now with this latest war, it’s crippled.”

With reports from Steven Chase in Ottawa and the Associated Press