Between 300 and 500 people were reportedly killed in the Al Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza City as a result of a bombing by Israeli aircraft. The sources of the information are the Ministry of Health and the Civil Defense of this territory governed by Hamas. According to a doctor, at the time of the bombing, about 4,000 people were sheltering in the facility. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest action by Israeli aviation since 2008. Before the massacre, the enclave government had raised the death toll in Gaza to 3,000.
The international drip of statements condemning the deadly attack was incessant, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, Canada, the EU… Meanwhile, the initial investigation by the Israeli armed forces indicated that the explosion in the hospital was caused by the failed Hamas rocket launch, according to i24News.
The massacre occurs just a few hours after the arrival in Israel of the American president, Joe Biden, with the intention of containing Beniamin Netanyahu. Biden’s visit is supportive, but the White House hopes to announce that civilians will have what they need and that the ground invasion will not put their lives in any more danger than they already have been. It is what the Arab countries want to hear and it is what Biden will say in Amman and Cairo, the next stops on his tour.
Al Ahli is one of the 22 hospitals that remain open in the north of the strip to meet the humanitarian needs of the population, despite evacuation orders. Al Ahli operates under the direction of the Episcopal diocese of Jerusalem and was already hit by several Israeli rockets on October 14, according to a statement from this organization of the Protestant Church.
Some of the Gazans who a few days ago heeded the Israeli army’s warning 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 this Tuesday it became clear again that there is no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.
The aircraft bombed Khan Younis and Rafah, the two main towns in the south, killing around 72 people, according to Palestinian health sources. Six people who had taken refuge in a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) school also died.
The UN estimates that there are about 600,000 displaced people in the south, joining the local population and 400,000 homeless people. Some 2.3 million people live in Gaza and all of them, those who are away from home and those who have stayed, are in desperate situations.
The WHO and the UN continue to insist that the water has run out and that this Wednesday the generators that illuminate the hospitals will stop working because they will no longer have fuel.
An Israeli military spokesman denied that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He affirmed that there is water and electricity, contrary to what international organizations that are in the strip maintain. In United Nations schools and shelters, water distribution 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 Beniamin Netayahu and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met for nine hours on Monday, but they did not reach any agreement.
The siege has united Arab capitals against Israel. They all demand that it be lifted, and with each passing day the danger that the conflict will spread increases.
Iran has made it clear again. If Israel does not stop “war crimes” in Gaza, the “axis of resistance,” as it calls the militias under its control, will launch attacks on “multiple fronts.” It may be a bluff and the truth is that, for now, Hizbullah is holding back. There is crossfire on the Lebanese border, with victims on each side (five Hizbullah militiamen died this Tuesday), but it could be much worse. The Shiite militia has an arsenal of medium-range missiles that it has barely touched.
Israel, meanwhile, is confident that the massive US military presence will deter its enemies. The aircraft carriers with their combat groups, which include cruisers and destroyers, are joined by a detachment of 2,000 marines, supported by F-15, F-16 fighters and several A-10s, the workhorse of the US air force designed to low altitude missions.
This entire deployment has been supervised by General Micahel Kurilla, head of Central Command, a division of the Pentagon that is in charge of protecting United States interests in the Middle East.
