An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit the Al-Ahli Anglican Hospital in Gaza, killing 500 civilians, including patients, staff, family members and other civilians who had taken shelter at the hospital. A United Nations School that had become a makeshift shelter this past week was also hit.
This brings the death toll in Gaza to over 2700 killed in the last ten days by Israeli airstrikes. Palestinian resistance fighters from the armed wing of the Hamas party killed an estimated 900 Israelis, and took over 100 hostage.
Video footage from Gaza released on social media and online news sources after Tuesday’s bombing shows distraught rescue workers in the midst of bodies strewn across the rubble, crying and wailing that “there are too many to count”.
The Israeli government’s attempt to deny their responsibility for the massacre were easily debunked by reporters in Gaza, who showed the massive scale of the destruction of the hospital. The flattening of a building of that size is far beyond the capability of any of the paltry homemade rockets produced by any of the resistance groups in Gaza. Despite this obvious falsehood, major media outlets worldwide repeated Israeli officials’ claim that it was ‘Islamic Jihad’ that bombed the hospital, when it was clearly an Israeli airstrike.
This is not the first time this week that Israeli airstrikes hit Al-Ahli Hospital, which is located in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in northern Gaza — an area which has been under heavy bombardment every day and night for the past ten days. On Friday, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of the entire northern Gaza Strip so they could launch a ground invasion. Al-Ahli was one of six hospitals ordered to evacuate, but they were unable to move the wounded and ill patients being treated there. Two days ago, an Israeli airstrike hit a wing of the Al-Ahli Hospital, causing damage and injuries.
Tuesday’s strike resulted in a massive fire that burned for hours. Rescue workers lack the water to put out fires, as Israel cut off water to the Gaza Strip on October 8th, and the Palestinian residents are trying to preserve what little water they have stored to be able to drink and survive.
The hospital, like other Gaza hospitals, has been working under impossible conditions since the beginning of this war. In addition, many families also tried to find refuge in and around the hospital, hoping that it would provide some sanctuary from the relentless bombing. Israel has ordered the hospital closed and its people evacuated as part of its campaign to clear out 1.1 million people from the north of Gaza, an order that the United Nations said was not possible to fulfill and would create a humanitarian catastrophe. Hospital administration and staff refused to leave, knowing it would be an immediate death sentence for many of its patients, and they continued to carry out their humanitarian task. Unfortunately, they paid heavily for their courage.
Founded in 1882 by the Anglican Church Missionary Society of the Church of England, the Al Ahli Arab Hospital has been providing service to the people of Gaza for 141 years and is considered one of the oldest in the Strip. After 1954, it operated as a ministry of the US Southern Baptist Convention until the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem took over operations in 1982 and has continued operations until today. Al Ahli is known internationally as a special place of healing and has been supported by Baptists, the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and many other faith communities around the world. Many international members and partners from all denominations are familiar with Al Ahli Arab Hospital and its administration and have regularly contributed to its work. Sing Appeal to your representative in the US, Call to Demand Immediate Ceasefire and Humanitarian Assistance in response to Gaza Hospital Bombing – Friends Of Sabeel North America
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement condemning the bombing of the hospital, saying, “Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law. My heart is with the families of the victims.
This video showed children playing in the hospital just a day before the airstrike. Most of these children were killed in Tuesday’s bombing.
A video captured yesterday for children playing in Al-Ahli hospital which was bombed today by lsraeli warplanes, killing over a 500 Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/kIHWRxEHse
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) October 17, 2023
The following is an interview with Dr. Mohammad Ziara in al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, where most of the wounded from the Al-Ahli bombing have been taken. He told reporter Dan Cohen that the number of killed may be closer to 800 than 500.
I just spoke with Dr. Mohamad Ziara in Gaza’s largest hospital where casualties are arriving from Israel’s bombing of al-Ahli hospital.
He says there are between 500 and 800 casualties.
Listen to our call: pic.twitter.com/vn3jBlH8JY
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) October 17, 2023
In this clip a doctor describes the scene of devastation in Al-Ahli Hospital:
In the aftermath of the devastating airstrike on Gaza’s al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital, a doctor on the ground describes the horror, stating, “This is really a genocide.”
Reports suggest hundreds are dead, with as many as 5,000 having sought refuge in the hospital prior to the strike. pic.twitter.com/5lXC98zn1X
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 17, 2023
Following the bombing, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, demanding justice.
Thousands of protesters in Istanbul, Turkey, stormed the Israeli consulate there, while in Tehran, Iran, protesters marched toward the French & British Embassies. In Jordan, protesters took to the streets of Amman, demanding that the border between Jordan and the West Bank be opened. In Beirut, Lebanon, thousands of protesters wove through traffic to make their way toward the US Embassy to call for an end of the Israeli occupation, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.
