*Israel denies responsibility, Hamas, Palestine insist it’s Israel
*MPAC Nigeria reacts
By KEMI KASUMU with agencies
An Israeli air strike hit Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City where thousands of civilians are seeking medical treatment and shelter from relentless attacks, according to Tuesday update report by Al Jazeera and agencies.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 500 people died in the hospital blast. A United Nations-run school housing refugees was also hit.
The attack was coming a day before United States President Joe Biden visits Israel where he is expected to stress US support for the country.
As rage spread through the region because of the hospital carnage, and with President Joe Biden heading to the Middle-East in hopes of stopping the war from spreading, according to AP, Jordan’s foreign minister said his country canceled a regional summit scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, where Biden was to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
The war between Israel and Hamas was “pushing the region to the brink,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told state-run television, adding that Jordan would host the summit only when everyone had agreed its purpose would be to “stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians and deliver the aid they deserve.”
Some 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attack inside Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people.
According to CNN, Palestinian officials blamed ongoing Israeli airstrikes for the lethal incident. But the Israel Defense Forces has “categorically” denied any involvement in the hospital attack, blaming instead a “failed rocket launch” by what it called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a rival Islamist militant group in Gaza.
“We did not strike that, and that the intelligence that we have suggests that it was a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad, and I want to add, categorically, that we do not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, any sensitive facilities, and definitely not hospitals,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN.
However, responses from Hamas and Palestinian authorities confirmed that the attack that killed 500 people in the hospital was by Israeli forces who bombed the place.
Hamas said the blast mostly killed displaced people, while the Palestinian Authority’s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of carrying out the bombing he called “a massacre”.
Located in central Gaza, the hospital, which is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, was struck while it was overwhelmed with thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter amid a campaign of brutal Israeli air attacks across much of the besieged Gaza Strip.
MPAC reacts
In a reaction by Muslim Public Affairs Centre (Centre), Nigeria, it noted that Israel had earlier used chemical weapons on the Palestinian population based on verified video and witness accounts. White Phosphorus, the same chemical that America used during the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004, was used on Gaza’s population during the week.
“Washington has done everything in its power to provide Israel with carte blanche to wage a “long and painful war” against Gaza. Since Hamas incursion into the highly fortified Israeli border on the 7th of October, now known as Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, America has done everything to get everyone to condemn Hamas and reaffirm their support for Israel.
Just like September 20, 2001 George Bush’s “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” ultimatum, the MPAC said one has to make a choice between Israel and Hamas.
“A dichotomy where Israel is framed as a rational and innocent actor provoked by an irrational terrorist threat, making any criticism of Israel’s actions de facto apologia for terrorism. Yet, Hamas, formed specifically to resist Israeli occupation well into its 70th year, is a legitimate Palestinian group resisting one of the most inhumane apartheid systems the world has ever known.
“As usual, almost as soon as Israel commenced aerial bombardment of Gaza Strip, indiscriminately killing thousands of innocent civilians, a veteran cheering squad made up of mostly American officials and media, suited up to support the home team, chanting the slogan: “Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life”.
“With the death toll now more than 3000, what is going on in Gaza is genocide, and America is fully involved. With a population of about 2.2 million packed into a space of 365kmsq, Gaza has endured 16 years of blockade, several bloody wars, and gradual strangulation. Hamas incursion was therefore a desperate action, a jailbreak, and Israel’s ongoing acts of disproportionate violence and war crimes will further inflame the Palestinians and strengthen resistance to occupation.
“President Biden is now in the Middle East to clear the way for Israel to escalate its violence, and begin land invasion. As Palestinians in Gaza, mostly children of refugees displaced during the 1948 Nakba, are now facing the threat of a genocidal land invasion, Israel’s air strike on this hospital has exposed it as a ruthless nation bent on ethnically cleansing Palestine of its indigenous people. However, whatever Israel and its formidable ally do at this time, Gaza will not go down like the Cannan of the past, ethnically cleansed. And as long as the occupation and Israeli terror on Palestinians remain, there can be no enduring peace in the region,” the MPAC Nigeria said in its reaction dated 17/10/2023 and copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER.
