According to reports, an airstrike leveled Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
Gaza’s health ministry said the bombing has resulted in at least 500 casualties.
The initial death toll stood around 200-300, but the number continues to steadily rise.
Reports indicated a UN-run school housing refugees was also struck.
There are conflicting reports of who bears responsibility for the hospital’s bombing.
While some sources claim an Israeli airstrike hit the hospital, others said a failed Hamas rocket launch caused the devastation.
Tragically, hundreds of innocent civilians are reportedly dead or seriously injured due to the explosion.
The longer this conflict continues, the more innocent people will suffer.
Multiple videos of the alleged bombing surfaced on social media.
Some accounts say it’s an Israeli airstrike.
Some accounts say it’s a failed Hamas rocket launch.
WLTReport cannot independently verify either claim.
The moment the hospital in Gaza was hit by Israeli airstrike pic.twitter.com/OTTdayOGoT
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) October 17, 2023
First clear footage from the Al Ahli tragedy in Gaza, but what do you notice?
this is a surface explosion, almost no soil is thrown up, so it's not an air bomb.
Looks like a failed Hamas rocket that landed there, what a tragedy has Hamas brought to the people of Gaza! pic.twitter.com/MNzo16ZKXt— David Lisovtsev (@david_lisovtsev) October 17, 2023
#BREAKING: Local footage reported to have been the failed launch. https://t.co/XfeUeKaFGy pic.twitter.com/4lXYhcVdMY
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 17, 2023
https://twitter.com/DschlopesIsBack/status/1714354143165395026
The Associated Press reported an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the hospital.
“A senior Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled his participation in a meeting scheduled Wednesday with President Joe Biden and other Mideast leaders,” the outlet stated.
Biden is scheduled to visit Israel and Jordan Wednesday.
AP reports:
Abbas was scheduled to join Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at Wednesday’s summit in Amman, Jordan, where they are to discuss the latest Israel-Hamas war with Biden.
But the senior official said Abbas was withdrawing to protest an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that Hamas health officials say has killed over 500 people.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the cancelation has not been formally announced.
“Initial investigation by IDF shows explosion in hospital in Gaza was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch,” Israel-based i24News stated.
🔴BREAKING: Initial investigation by IDF shows explosion in hospital in Gaza was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 17, 2023
CNN reported:
A school and a hospital in Gaza were among the civilian refuges lethally blasted during Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, as humanitarian concerns mount over ongoing deprivation of food, fuel and electricity to the isolated population.
Hundreds are thought to have died in the strike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which was sheltering thousands of displaced people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. Many victims are still under the rubble, it added.
The Israel Defense Forces are looking the hospital attack, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, adding that it was unclear if the cause was an IDF strike or a failed Hamas launch.
Gaza has been under siege by Israel for more than a week, in response to the deadly incursion by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the coastal enclave, home to 2.2 million people. Hospitals meanwhile are struggling to tend to the wounded across the territory, operating with shortages of electricity and water.
Vital humanitarian aid is meanwhile piling up at Gaza’s shuttered border, despite diplomatic efforts to open a corridor from Egypt. The United Nations and other officials have said they need assurance of safe passage for any potential aid convoys.
Amid growing international pressure to address the crisis, US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday, an extraordinary wartime visit that follows intense efforts by Secretary of State Antony Blinken across the Middle East.
“Heads up!! Looks like Hamas tried, as it always does, to fire a heavy barrage of missiles at Israel from near a hospital. It didn’t go too well. They are now trying to pretend it was Israel who bombed the hospital and killed 500. It wasn’t Israel. It was Hamas,” American-Israeli tech columnist Hillel Fuld commented.
Heads up!!
Looks like Hamas tried, as it always does, to fire a heavy barrage of missiles at Israel from near a hospital.
It didn’t go too well.
They are now trying to pretend it was Israel who bombed the hospital and killed 500.
It wasn’t Israel. It was Hamas.
Remember…
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) October 17, 2023
This story is developing.
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