New Delhi: Arab countries erupted in anger, blaming Israel for the killing of more than 500 Palestinians in a hospital in Gaza, while India and Tel Aviv’s partner countries in the West condemned the death of civilians without explicitly assigning blame.
On October 7, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed when Hamas members breached the border with Israel from Gaza. In retaliation, Israeli air strikes have hit Gaza relentlessly, killing over 1,417 people and rendering 300,000 people homeless.
On Tuesday, there was outrage since the Palestinian health ministry said that more than 500 people, including women and children, were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza City.
The casualties are in the hundreds as the hospital compound was giving refuge to Palestinians fleeing the airstrikes by Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has blamed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for what it claimed was a “failed rocket launch which hit the hospital”.
India
Without ascribing any blame for the attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that he was “deeply shocked at the tragic loss of lives at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza”.
Expressing condolences to the bereaved, Modi posted, “Civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict are a matter of serious and continuing concern” and stated that those “involved should be held responsible”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately expressed “solidarity with Israel” on October 7, followed by a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There was no call for restraint or end to violence by the Indian government. The Indian PM had famously told Russian President Vladimir Putin, after his country’s invasion of Ukraine, that the present time was “not an era for war”.
The Indian foreign ministry spokesperson last week said last week that New Delhi believes “that there is a universal obligation to observe international humanitarian law.” He added that there was a “global responsibility to fight the menace of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”, which echoed Modi’s remarks.
United States
The initial statements from the US were neutral, not blaming anyone for the attacks. But when US President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, he squarely blamed the opponents of Israel.
With the hospital explosion having taken place as he embarked on a visit to Israel, Biden said he was “outraged and deeply saddened”.
“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,” said his statement.
Biden also stated that he had immediately called up Jordanian King Abdullah and Netanyahu.
While Biden didn’t mention who was behind the attack, the statement said that the national security team was directed to “continue gathering information about what exactly happened”.
During a press briefing aboard Air Force One, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby was asked about the omission in Biden’s statement about the Israeli claim. “They have categorically denied that they were involved in that. So, I’ll let them speak to — to their statement on that,” he said.
On arrival in Tel Aviv, Biden told Netanyahu, “Based on what I have seen, it was done by the other team, not you.”
“But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure. So we’ve got to overcome a lot of things,” he added.
United Nations
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted on Wednesday he was “horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians” in Tuesday’s explosion at a Gaza hospital.
“Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law,” Guterres wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
He also called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. “Too many lives – and the fate of the entire region – hang in the balance,” wrote the UN chief.
“Words fail me,” began the statement by UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk. Stating that the “massive strike” at the hospital was “totally unacceptable”, he added, “Hospitals are sacrosanct, and they must be protected at all cost. We don’t yet know the full scale of this carnage, but what is clear is that the violence and killings must stop at once.”
Türk also called for those responsible to be held to account.
Similarly, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said she was “horrified” by the Gaza hospital attack without ascribing blame to either party.
“Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, are unacceptable and must cease now. UNICEF reiterates its urgent plea for an immediate cessation of hostilities, ensuring the protection of children from harm and facilitating the safe and timely access of humanitarian aid to children in need,” she said.
The World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that he “strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in north Gaza”. “Early reports indicate hundreds of deaths and injuries. We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health care, and for the evacuation orders to be reversed,” he added.
The WHO in another statement noted that the Al Ahli hospital was “one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military”. “The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced,” it said.
While clearly not ascribing any blame for the attack, the WHO called for immediate protection of civilians and reversal of evacuation orders. “International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted.”
Saudi Arabia
The Saudi foreign ministry’s statement on Tuesday night categorically said that “Israeli occupation forces” were responsible for the “heinous crime” of the deaths at the hospital. It also said that the brutal attack was “a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms” and denounced the “failure of Israeli occupation forces to stop its continuous attacks against civilians despite many international appeals”.
“The dangerous development compels the international community to abandon the double standards and selectivity in applying international humanitarian law when it comes to the Israeli criminal practices and requires a serious and firm stance to provide protection to unarmed civilians,” said the strongly-worded Saudi statement.
It also called on the need to open safe corridors, provide food and medicines to civilians in Gaza and “to hold the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for their continued repeated violations of all international norms and laws”.
UAE
Pointing fingers at Israel, the United Arab Emirates strongly condemned “the Israeli attack that targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of people”.
“The Ministry also stressed the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and to ensure that civilians and civilian institutions are not targeted. The Ministry further underlined the importance of the protection of civilians, according to international humanitarian law, international treaties for the protection of civilians and human rights, and the need to ensure that they are not targeted in conflict,” it said.
UAE, along with Russia, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Palestine, including the strike on the Gaza hospital.
Jordan
In a statement, King Abdullah of Jordan “expressed his strong condemnation and denunciation of the heinous massacre committed by Israel today against innocent civilians, the injured and the sick who were receiving treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza”. He described it as a “heinous war crime that cannot be tolerated”.
The King also said that Israel “must immediately cease its brutal aggression on Gaza, which contradicts humanitarian and moral values and constitutes a flagrant violation of the rules of international humanitarian law”.
After his Israel visit, the US President was supposed to travel to Jordan to confer with Abdullah, the Egyptian president and Palestinian Authority leader. However, it was cancelled even as Air Force One sat on Joint Base Andrews waiting for takeoff.
The Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi tweeted, “When is enough enough? How many innocent Palestinians must die before Israel stops its war on Gaza?”
Egypt
In a statement released late on Tuesday, Egypt condemned “in the strongest terms” the Israeli air strike on the Gaza hospital.
The Egyptian foreign ministry described the bombing of “civilian facilities and targets as a grave violation of international law, humanitarian principles, and most basic human values”.
Cairo also called on the “international community, especially major influential nations, to promptly intervene to halt these violations and unequivocally condemn them”
Egypt also demanded that Israel should refrain from targeting the surrounding areas of the Rafah border crossing to enable Egypt and other countries, international organizations, and humanitarian groups to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible.
Iran
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, posted, “Time is Over!” on his official X account after the hospital explosion. He wrote that the “time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine”.
Iran had earlier warned that “multiple fronts” would be opened against Israel if strikes continued to kill civilians in Gaza.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson described the attack as a “brutal war crime and genocide.”
“In the continuation of its shameful crimes against the Palestinian nation, by committing this heinous and horrible crime, the Zionist regime once again showed its ferocity and cowardice to the whole world and proved that it does not adhere to the principles and rules of international law in times of war,” he posted on X.
Qatar
A stringent critic of any normalisation of ties with Israel, Qatar described the “expansion of Israeli attacks in Gaza Strip to include civilian objects, including hospitals, schools and residential compounds, is considered a serious escalation” in the current volatile situation in the region.
Qatar also accused the international community of “complicity” through “silence” and “selectivity” regarding the “war crimes committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people”.
Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted that “striking a hospital where there are women, children, and innocent civilians is the latest example of Israel’s attacks devoid of fundamental human values”. “I call on all humanity to take action to stop Israel’s unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” he wrote.
There was also universal condemnation of Israel from other Turkish leaders and officials.
Russia
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that the hospital blast was an “act of dehumanisation” and that Israel must provide proof that it wasn’t involved.
In a program on Radio Sputnik, Zakharova said, “Regarding our assessment, we certainly qualify such an act as a crime, as an act of dehumanisation.”
She said that the US and Israel should provide unedited satellite imagery as well as flight locations.
“We are now seeing a desire [from Israel] to absolve responsibility,” she said. “If there are serious intentions … to prove it was not involved and is innocent, then it needs not only to comment in the media and on social networks, but to provide facts.”
China
While China’s foreign ministry has not issued any statement so far, the Chinese ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun condemned the “heinous strike on the hospital in Gaza, which caused huge casualties of innocent Palestinian civilians”.
Since the Hamas intrusion into Israel, China has strongly taken a pro-Palestinian line.
During a phone call with the Saudi foreign minister on Octpber 15, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had said that Israel’s actions have “gone beyond self-defence” and that it “should put an end to the collective punishment of the population of Gaza”.
Japan
A statement from Japanese foreign minister Kamikawa Yoko noted Tokyo’s “strong indignation” for the tremendous damage to civilians.
“Attacks against hospitals or civilians cannot be justified on any ground,” said the Japanese foreign minister, avoiding naming any one for being behind the attack. “Japan urges all the parties to act, based on international law, so as to avoid further civilian casualties. Japan will redouble its efforts, in coordination with other countries, to secure the safety of civilians and to calm down the situation as soon as possible,” it said.
Indonesia
Indonesia directly blamed Israel for the attack on the hospital, which “clearly violates international humanitarian law”.
Calling on the international community to intervene and stop attacks in Gaza, the Indonesian foreign ministry posted, “Injustice against the Palestinian people has been going on for a very long time and is still happening today.”
“It is time for the world to prioritize the creation of a just peace for Palestine,” it said.
Europe
Without naming any perpetrators, the European Council president Charles Michel on Tuesday said that an “attack against a civilian infrastructure is not in line with the international law”.
The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that there was “no excuse for hitting a hospital full of medical staff and civilians”. “All the facts have to be established and those responsible must be held accountable,” she posted.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that “nothing can justify striking a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians. France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, which made so many Palestinian victims. Our thoughts are with them”.
He added, “Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened back without delay.”
The British foreign secretary James Cleverly said that the UK will “work with our allies to find out what has happened and protect innocent civilians in Gaza”.
“The destruction of Al Ahli hospital is a devastating loss of human life,” Cleverly said on X.
The Pope
Pope Francis in a series of tweets said that the situation in Gaza is desperate and pleaded that everything possible should be done to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. “The possible widening of the conflict is disturbing. Let the weapons be silenced; let the cry for peace be heard from the poor, from the people, from the children!
War does not resolve any problem. It only sows death and destruction, increases hate, multiplies vengeance. War erases the future. I exhort believers to take only one side in this conflict: the side of peace – not in word, but in prayer,” he said.
