© Reuters. Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble at a site of a house destroyed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 16, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) -About 500 Palestinians were killed in a blast at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that Palestinian health authorities said was caused by an Israeli air strike but that the Israeli military blamed on a failed rocket launch by a Palestinian militant group.
The blast was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for a deadly cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.
It took place on the eve of a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel to show support for the country in its war with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, and to hear how Israel plans to minimize civilian casualties.
Reuters could not independently verify who was responsible for the blast.
The health minister in the Hamas-run government of Gaza, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of a massacre. A Gaza civil defence chief said 300 people were killed and a health ministry official said 500 were killed.
Prior to Tuesday’s incident, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had been killed in Israel’s 11-day bombardment that began after Hamas militants rampaged into Israeli towns and kibbutzes on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,300 people, mainly civilians.
However, the Israeli military denied responsibility for the blast at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City, suggesting the hospital was hit by a failed rocket launch by the enclave’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad military group.
“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said.
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza,” the spokesperson added.
Daoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told Reuters: “This is a lie and fabrication, it is completely incorrect. The occupation is trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”
During the last Israeli-Hamas conflict in 2021, Israel said Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups fired around 4,360 rockets from Gaza of which around 680 fell short of Israel and into the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the blast.
Clashes with Palestinian security forces broke out in a number of other cities in the West Bank, which is ruled by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, late on Tuesday, witnesses said.
Regardless of who was responsible for the hospital blast, which Hamas said had killed patients, women and children and others left homeless by Israeli bombardments, it will likely make even more complex diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis.
Abbas cancelled a planned meeting with Biden following the blast, a senior Palestinian official said.
That meeting was due to take place in Jordan, where Abbas maintains a residence, but the Palestinian official said he was returning to Ramallah, the seat of his government in the occupied West Bank.
After Hamas officials initially blamed Tuesday’s hospital blast on an Israeli air strike, Arab countries, Iran and Turkey swiftly condemned it. The Palestinian prime minister called it “a horrific crime, genocide” and said countries backing Israel also bore responsibility.
