Nations Worldwide Express Outrage Over Deadly Attack on Hospital in Gaza Strip
10:16 18.10.2023 (Updated: 10:25 18.10.2023)
© AFP 2023 ANWAR AMRO
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - On Tuesday, a strike hit the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, killing over 500 people. Palestinian movement Hamas pinned responsibility for the attack on Israel, but the Israel Defense Forces denied any involvement, putting the blame on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
Multiple countries, including Russia, Venezuela, France, Qatar, Egypt and Greece have expressed outrage over a deadly strike on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip, condemning the attack on the civilian infrastructure and calling it a war crime.
Russia classifies the recent attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip as a crime and an act of dehumanization, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"Of course, we classify such a criminal act as a crime, as an act of dehumanization," Zakharova told Radio Sputnik, adding that Israel must provide satellite images to prove that its army is not involved in the attack.
The escalation of the situation in the Middle East has gone far beyond the region, the diplomat said, calling it "a global humanitarian disaster on a global scale."
Caracas has condemned the strike on the Gazan medical facility, calling it "a massacre staged by Israel," and urged responsibility for crimes against humanity to be determined, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
"This inhumane and unjustified act, which has been added to the long list of crimes committed in recent days against the civilian population in Gaza, is a clear violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and again demonstrates the policy of apartheid, aggression and extermination that Israel is pursuing against the Palestinian people," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the attack, saying that "nothing can justify striking a hospital."
"France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, which made so many Palestinian victims. Our thoughts are with them. All the light must be shed on the circumstances," Macron said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Qatar has also expressed horror over the hospital attack and said Doha considered it "a brutal massacre" and "a flagrant violation" of the provisions of international and humanitarian law, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Ministry calls on the international community to assume responsibility and deter Israel from committing more crimes against civilians," the statement read.
In the same vein, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi condemned the deadly strike and said it was "a deliberate shelling".
The Communist Party of Greece called the incident "an incredible atrocity" and demanded that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postpone his upcoming visit to Israel.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced that the UK would work with its allies to determine the circumstances of the incident.
"The destruction of Al Ahli hospital is a devastating loss of human life … The UK will work with our allies to find out what has happened and protect innocent civilians in Gaza," Cleverly said on X.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry has also decried the attack and called for observing the norms of international humanitarian law.
Meanwhile, Syria has blamed the West, primarily the United States, for the shelling of the hospital and other "massacres" in the Gaza Strip, as the countries are "complicit in the extermination" of the Palestinian people, Syrian President Bashar Assad's office said in a statement.
King Abdullah II of Jordan said the strike was a war crime and urged Israel to immediately stop "its brutal aggression."
On October 7, Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, prompting Israel to declare a state of war the following day and launch retaliatory strikes. On October 9, Israel ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people being killed and injured.
