Palestinians say hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike on hospital; Israel blames Islamic Jihad
Gaza City strike brings Palestinian death toll to 3,000, territory's Health Ministry says
The latest:
- Hundreds reported killed in airstrike on Gaza City hospital.
- Israel denies involvement in hospital blast, says rocket was fired by Islamic Jihad.
- Top Israeli official says aid deal depends on guarantees that Hamas will not seize deliveries.
- The number of people killed in Gaza reaches 3,000, Palestinian Health Ministry says.
Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. However, the Israeli military said it had no involvement in the explosion, which it says was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.
The ministry in Gaza said about 500 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Ahli Hospital and that many of the victims had sought shelter there.
Photos and video purportedly from the hospital on social media showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital's grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Around them in the grass were blankets, school backpacks and other belongings. The images could not immediately be independently verified.
The reported strike came as the U.S. was trying to convince Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which has been under a complete siege since Hamas's deadly rocket barrage and incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Hamas called Tuesday's reported hospital strike "a horrific massacre."
"The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. "International humanitarian and 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."
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was horrified by the blast, noting hospitals and its workers are protected under humanitarian law.
In southern Gaza, continued strikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure on Tuesday in attacks Israel says are targeted at militants.
Wounded people were rushed to the hospital after heavy attacks outside the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, Gaza residents reported. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported that 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 were killed in Khan Younis.
An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis since early Tuesday. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.
An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing nine members of the family living there. Three members of another family that had evacuated from Gaza City were killed in a neighbouring home. The dead included one man and 11 women and children. Witnesses said there was no previous warning before the strike.
Israel's military late last week gave an evacuation order affecting hundreds of thousands in the north of the Gaza Strip, although Hamas, which controls Gaza, told citizens to stay put.
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Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip killed one of its top military commanders. Ayman Nofal, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed, was killed Tuesday in a strike that targeted the Bureij camp.
Emotional plea from mother of abducted woman
Israel has carried out unrelenting airstrikes against Hamas-ruled Gaza since the militant attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Canadians are among the dead.
Dozens of Israelis and citizens of other countries were taken captive and brought to Gaza by militants.
The Israeli military said Monday at least 199 hostages, including children, were taken into Gaza — more than previously estimated. Hamas said it was holding 200 to 250 hostages.
The plight of the hostages has dominated the Israeli media since the attack, with interviews with their relatives playing on television almost constantly. Israeli officials have vowed to maintain the siege of Gaza until the hostages are released.
Hamas's military wing released a hostage video showing a dazed woman having her arm wrapped with bandages. The woman, who identified herself as Mia Schem, 21, rocked slightly as she spoke, the sound of explosions reverberating in the background.
"I didn't know [if] she is dead or alive until yesterday; what I knew is that she might be kidnapped," Keren Schem, her mother, said at a news conference on Tuesday. "I'm begging the world to bring my baby back home."
Gaza near complete collapse, say aid workers
The Israeli strikes have killed around 3,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 12,000 others in Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. The strikes have not stopped Hamas militants from continuing to barrage Israel with rockets launched from Gaza. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, according to Israel.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centres in the latest strikes.
"When we see a target, when we see something moving that is Hamas, we'll take care of it. We'll handle it," said Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesperson.
The combination of airstrikes, dwindling necessities caused by Israel's blockade, and Israel's mass evacuation order for the north of the Gaza Strip has thrown the tiny territory's 2.3 million people into upheaval and caused increasing desperation.
Dire conditions
Asia Mathkour, a Canadian Palestinian who was displaced in Gaza and is sheltering with her five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter, managed to get in touch with her sister-in-law, Mae Latif, Tuesday morning.
"We know they had a really rough night, although they evacuated to the south [where] there is still bombing taking place," Latif told CBC News.
They're running out of food and water, and Mathkour's son is sick with a fever, Latif said.
Canadian officials have said they're working to help as many as 300 Canadians who say they want to leave Gaza. Latif said her sister-in-law has received no word of any plan.
More than one million Palestinians have fled their homes, and 60 per cent are now in the approximately 14-kilometre-long area south of the evacuation zone, the United Nations said. Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse with ever-decreasing supplies of water and medicine and with power running out at hospitals.
In Gaza, more than 400,000 displaced people in the south crowded into schools and other facilities of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The agency said it has only one litre of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory. Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefited only 14 per cent of Gaza's population, the UN said.
Humanitarian supplies sit near Egyptian border
On Monday, Israeli warplanes struck the headquarters of the Civil Defence in Gaza City, killing seven paramedics. Another 10 medics and doctors have been killed on the job, health authorities said.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to go into the tiny, densely populated territory, and trapped civilians — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — were hoping desperately to get out.
Mediators were trying to reach a ceasefire to open the border, which shut down last week after Israeli airstrikes.
The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.
As of late Tuesday, no deal was in place to deliver aid to the territory. A top Israeli official said his country was demanding guarantees that Hamas militants would not seize any aid deliveries. Tzahi Hanegbi, head of Israel's National Security Council, suggested entry of aid also depended on the return of hostages held by Hamas.
"The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts," he told reporters.
Israel, Iran exchange threats
Israel evacuated towns near its border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
The military said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. Video from a reconnaissance drone the army shared showed the militants near the border wall before they were targeted, causing an explosion.
"Whoever approaches the border with Lebanon will be killed," said Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel's continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.
"Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry," Khamenei said, according to state media.
Israel has warned Lebanon it will strongly retaliate against attacks from across the border. Israel fought a vicious month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006 that ended in a stalemate.
With files from CBC News and Reuters