(Reuters) – A Gaza health ministry spokesman said hundreds were killed in a blast at a Gaza City hospital that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other and that ignited protests in the West Bank and around the Middle East.
CONFLICT
* “The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
* Daoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told Reuters: “This is a lie and fabrication, it is completely incorrect. The occupation is trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”
* Yossi Landav, 55, has worked in search and rescue for 33 years but nothing could prepare him for what he saw in the aftermath of a Hamas attack in southern Israel which killed at least 1,300 people.
DIPLOMACY AND PROTESTS
* Jordan cancelled a summit it was to host in Amman on Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders to discuss Gaza, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
* “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” Biden, who is traveling to Israel, said in a statement. “The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy.”
* The hospital blast drew condemnation across the Arab world, and protests were staged at Israel’s embassies in Turkey and Jordan and near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas toward demonstrators.
* Palestinian security forces in Ramallah fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled over after the deadly Gaza hospital attack.
* Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group denounced what it said was Israel’s deadly attack on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza, which is run by the Anglican church, and called for “a day of unprecedented anger” against Israel and Biden’s visit.
* The United Nations Security Council will now vote on Wednesday on a Brazilian-drafted resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.
* The U.S. State Department will continue to offer government-sponsored charter flights to Europe from Tel Aviv to help Americans leave Israel through at least Sunday.
* Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent deadly air strikes in Gaza.
ANALYSIS
* Whatever unfolds in Gaza war, judgment day looms for Netanyahu
* EXPLAINER-Why Gaza’s Rafah border crossing matters, and why Egypt is keeping it shut
EXPLAINER-What you need to know about Hezbollah, the group backing Hamas against Israel
FACTBOX-US aircraft carriers – What they bring to the Middle East
(Compiled by Lincoln Feast. Edited by Gerry Doyle)
