Between 300 and 500 people would have died in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City, as a result of a violent explosion yesterday evening. Hamas blames the Israeli air force for bombing the facility, while the Israeli military says in a preliminary investigation that the cause was a misdirected rocket from a launcher belonging to Islamic Jihad, the other militia that operates in the Gaza Strip.
The sources of the information on the number of dead are the Ministry of Health and Civil Defense of this territory governed by Hamas. According to a doctor, around 4,000 people were taking refuge in the facility at the time of the bombing. If the Israeli authorship is confirmed, it would be the deadliest action by the aviation of this country since 2008. Before the massacre, the government of the enclave had raised to 3,000 the number of dead in Gaza
The killing took place just hours before the arrival of US President Joe Biden in Israel, with the intention of containing Benjamin Netanyahu, and has unleashed a wave of outrage in all Arab countries, where there have been demonstrations . The protests have also spread to the occupied West Bank, where some demonstrators chanted against Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority.
Just a few minutes after the facts became known, Abbas suspended the meeting he had scheduled with the president of the United States. With his visit, Biden hoped to announce that civilians will have what they need and that the ground invasion will not put their lives in more danger than they already are. It's what Arab countries want to hear, and it's what Biden planned to say in Amman and Cairo, the next stops on his tour.
The events of yesterday evening radically change the nature of this visit at a time of danger for the area that raises the possibility of an extension of the conflict by several degrees.
Al-Ahli is one of 22 hospitals that remain open in the north of the strip to attend to the humanitarian needs of the population, despite Israeli evacuation orders. Al-Ahli operates under the direction of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and was hit by an Israeli rocket last Saturday, according to a statement from this organization of the Protestant Church.
Some of the residents of Gaza who a few days ago heeded the warning of the Israeli army to evacuate their homes and move to the south of the strip were returning to the north. Israel advised them to leave "for their safety", but yesterday it became clear again that there is no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.
The air force bombed Khan Iunis and Rafah, the two main towns in the south, killing about 72 people, according to Palestinian health sources. Six people who had taken refuge in a school of the United Nations Refugee Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) also died.
The UN estimates that there are around 600,000 displaced people in the south, adding to the local population and the 400,000 homeless people. About 2.3 million people live in Gaza, and all of them, those who are outside their homes and those who have stayed, are in a desperate situation.
The WHO and the UN keep insisting that the water has run out and that today the generators that light up the hospitals will stop working because they will not have fuel.
An Israeli military spokesman denied there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He affirmed that there is water and electricity, contrary to what the international organizations that are in the strip maintain. In schools and shelters of the United Nations, the distribution of water has been limited to one liter per person per day. Rationing is even worse in hospitals: 350 cubic centimeters per patient, according to the Ministry of Health.
The United States insists that negotiations to open humanitarian corridors and create safe zones will soon bear fruit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met for nine hours on Monday, but they did not reach an agreement.
The siege has united the Arab capitals. They all demand that he rise, and every day that passes increases the danger that the conflict will spread. Iran has made it clear. If Israel does not stop "war crimes" in Gaza, the "axis of resistance", as it calls the militias under its control, will respond.
