Courtesy: The Columbian
HUNDREDS of Palestinians were killed in a blast at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The exact death toll is currently unclear, with Gaza officials providing conflicting numbers ranging from 200 to 500 people, said the reports published on foreign policy.com.
Hamas accused Israel of being behind the strike, calling it a “horrific massacre.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), however, said in a statement that an initial analysis indicates the blast was from a failed rocket launched toward Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Gaza-based Islamist militant group.
The conflicting claims come as Israel has ramped up attacks on Gaza in recent days ahead of a planned ground offensive. On Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted a house in Gaza City where the family of Hamas’s top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, lives, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh himself lives in Doha, Qatar.
In the war’s most high-profile death thus far, an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp killed senior Hamas commander Ayman Nofal on Tuesday. Nofal oversaw Hamas’s Central Gaza Brigade and served on its General Military Council, which helped coordinate attacks among Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other militants in the region.
He was also allegedly involved in the development of weapons and the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“Hamas members have two options: Either die in their positions or surrender unconditionally,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. “There is no third option. We will wipe out the Hamas organization and dismantle all of its capabilities.”
Blinken has spent the past week conducting intense shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Arab nations in the region. And on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden will join him in Israel to show Washington’s commitment to the IDF. Biden will then visit Jordan to meet with King Abdullah II as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
