WASHINGTON — Outrage spread across the Arab world and Jordan canceled a planned summit with US President Joe Biden following a deadly blast at a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday that killed hundreds. Israel and Hamas exchanged blame for the blast.
The foreign ministries of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemned Israel for the attack. The UAE, Jordan and Egypt both signed normalization and peace agreements with Israel.
On Tuesday, UAE and Russia called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting Tuesday.
"The UAE and Russia have called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, following the strike on a hospital in Gaza," the UAE UN mission spokesperson Sgagad Matar wrote on X.
What happened: A blast occurred at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday evening local time. Authorities in the Hamas-run enclave blamed an Israeli airstrike. A civil defense leader said 300 were killed, while a health ministry official said it was 500, according to Reuters.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the hospital was hit when a barrage of rockets were fired towards Israel, and blamed the Gaza-based militant group Islamic Jihad for the attack.
"According to intelligence information from a number of sources we have, Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital,” said the IDF in a statement.
Before the strike, Palestinian authorities said that around 3,000 have been killed by Israeli strikes since the ongoing war began. The number of people in Israel killed in Hamas’ attack and subsequent fighting stands at around 1,400.
Reactions: The strike elicited strong reactions throughout the Middle East. There were protests in the West Bank, Jordan and Tunisia against Israel, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah called for a “day of anger” on Wednesday, adding that the United States "bears direct and complete responsibility for this and all crimes perpetrated by the Zionist enemy” in reference to the hospital strike, according to a statement carried by the group’s media outlet Al-Manar.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to Israel on Wednesday. He was originally scheduled to travel to Jordan after Israel for a four-way summit with King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. However, a White House official told reporters on Tuesday evening that the Jordan trip has been postponed following consultations with the Jordanian king and the days of mourning announced by Abbas.
Know more: The US is taking an oversight role in Israel’s war with Hamas due to Americans concerns about the outbreak of a regional war, Ben Caspit wrote for Al-Monitor on Tuesday.
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