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Hundreds killed in explosion at a crowded Gaza hospital

9:13pm October 17, 2023

Wounded Palestinians sit in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, after arriving from Al-Ahli hospital following an explosion there, on Tuesday.

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Updated October 17, 2023 at 9:02 PM ET

Palestinian health officials say hundreds of people have been killed in an explosion at a crowded Gaza hospital. The cause of the explosion has not yet been confirmed, with Palestinian authorities accusing Israel and Israel saying a Palestinian militant group was responsible.

It comes as Israel and Hamas trade airstrikes and rocket fire and mediators press for an agreement to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip and refugees with foreign passports to leave the enclave.

Palestinian health officials said most of the victims of the explosion were women and children. Arabic news channels broadcast grim footage of the catastrophic aftermath, showing grieving parents holding their children.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the organization "strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahili 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."

Protests broke out in Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Jordan in response to the blast.

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah faced off with police as the crowds chanted against Israel and called for the downfall of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In Amman, police fired tear gas at crowds chanting outside Israel's embassy.

Biden's summit with leaders in Jordan and Egypt postponed

Abbas called for three days of mourning and canceled a meeting planned for Wednesday in Jordan with President Biden, according to Palestinian officials. The meeting was supposed to take place during Biden's trip to the Middle East.

Shortly thereafter, the White House confirmed that his planned stop in Amman, Jordan, where he was to meet Abbas, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was canceled altogether.

"The President sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded," a White House official said in a statement. "He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days."

Arab governments blame Israel for the hospital explosion, Israel says a militant group is to blame

Palestinian authorities, along with Arab governments including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accused Israel of bombing the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

But in a statement to NPR, the Israel Defense Forces said it considers a hospital a sensitive building and not an IDF target.

In an official statement, the IDF put the blame of the hospital blast on another militant group, smaller than Hamas, called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

"The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization," IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. "The terrorist organizations within the Gaza Strip fire indiscriminately toward Israel. Since the beginning of the war, approximately 450 rockets launched toward Israel have fallen within Gaza, endangering and harming the lives of Gazan residents."

Before news of the explosion at the hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that the death toll in Gaza Strip numbered around 3,000 and more than 12,500 wounded. It's expected that the incident at the hospital will increase these numbers.

In the West Bank, 61 people are dead and more than 1,250 injured.

More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, the vast majority of that number during the unprecedented Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that included the taking of almost 200 hostages.

Civilian facilities struggle

Hospitals are already struggling to care for the thousands of injured people in Gaza as fuel for generators runs low after Israel imposed a full siege on the small territory.

Earlier Tuesday, the United Nations' Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, said a school where thousands of Gaza residents have taken refuge, was hit, killing at least six people.

At least 4,000 people had taken refuge in he school in al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza when it was hit during an Israeli airstrike and bombardment, according to Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general.

Since the war began on Oct. 7, UNRWA says it has provided the coordinates of its facilities "to relevant parties" daily.

"Dozens were injured (including UNRWA staff) and severe structural damage was caused to the school. The numbers are likely to be higher. This is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians," Lazzarini said in a statement. "No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities." The thousands who took refuge in the school still have nowhere else to go, Lazzarini said.

As these incidents underscore, facilities where civilians are seeking care and shelter have come under attack as the conflict drags on.

As Palestinians struggle to find safe passage, health care and clean, reliable water, officials from Hamas — the militant group that governs Gaza — remained unrepentant for the group's attack on Israel that began last Saturday.

Israel says it will not stop its attacks until it has destroyed Hamas.

"Every Hamas member is a dead man," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.

Hamas wants the world's attention, spokesman says

The group's surprise attack targeted a music festival, where militants killed more than 200 people and sent young people fleeing into bomb shelters.

"This is a fake story. This is a fake story. Hundred percent," Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said to NPR.

Multiple eyewitnesses and video recordings have confirmed the attack on the festival. Some attendees are also among those being held hostage.

Hamad spoke to NPR's Steve Inskeep for Morning Edition from inside Gaza. He didn't disclose a specific location.

Of that attack, which started this latest conflict, Hamad said: "We want to get the attention of the world. We are under oppression and torture and collective punishment all the time. That's our message for the world."

The Israeli military says Hamas is "responsible for the humanitarian consequences" of the violence and chaos that followed last weekend's attack.

As for the hostages taken by Hamas, Hamad claimed they were providing the nearly 200 people with shelter and protection.

Those hostages include some military personnel, children and one Holocaust survivor, Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said early Tuesday morning during a briefing on X.

Hamad said Hamas would not release hostages: "But it is a war. No. Our priority now is to stop aggression and death on Gaza."

Hamad said he is more concerned with Palestinian civilians than with hostages.

Lack of water and electricity creates a crisis in Gaza

Gaza's 2.3 million residents are struggling as Israel shut off supplies of water, food and power to Gaza's main electricity grid days ago.

After meetings with Israeli officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the U.S. and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to get aid from "donor nations and multilateral organizations" to the besieged Gaza Strip.

"It is critical that aid begins flowing into Gaza as soon as possible," Blinken said at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv early Tuesday. There are also discussions to possibly establish areas to help keep civilians safe, he said.

The fraught situation hinges on the border crossing at Rafah, where trucks bearing humanitarian aid are sitting in Egypt, just across at the territory's southern border.

The Rafah crossing is currently closed, and the process of reopening promises to be complicated. In theory, fuel, water and other aid would flow into Gaza while refugees and foreign nationals flow out. But Israel is worried Hamas would exploit the crossing; Egypt is wary of taking in hundreds of thousands of people — and Palestinians are worried they wouldn't be allowed back into Gaza if they leave.

In the wake of Israel's Oct. 13 order to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the number of internally displaced people reached 1 million on Monday, the United Nations said. Conricus said Tuesday that about 500,000 Israelis have also been displaced in the south of Israel due to the hostilities.

But Hamad, the Hamas spokesperson, said the organization has asked "our people to stay here" in order to "stand against the Israeli evacuation."

He denied the frequently cited accusation by Israel that Hamas plans to use civilians as human shields.

Biden to visit the region as strikes are exchanged across Israel's border

Israeli military forces are continuing to attack Hamas in the south of the country, focusing on the Gaza Strip, while fighting new attacks from Hezbollah along the northern border with Lebanon, Conricus said. On Tuesday, Israel's military said it killed four militants attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon.

Residents evacuated dozens of Israeli towns near the northern border in anticipation of full-blown fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Overnight, Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israel's military said Tuesday that it killed Osama Mazini, a Hamas official who Israel says was responsible for prisoners taken by Hamas and who directed terrorist strikes against Israel.

Gaza's Ministry of Health reported more dead and wounded from Israeli strikes. Reports say dozens were killed and dozens more wounded by strikes at Rafah and Khan Younis, an area in southern Gaza where Israel had told residents to travel in advance of an expected ground offensive in the north of the enclave. The ministry also reported that people remain trapped under the rubble of homes and buildings hit by airstrikes.

Amid the growing fears of violence expanding, the White House had announced President Biden will visit the region. But now with the blast in the hospital in Gaza and canceled meetings in Jordan, Biden will only visit Tel Aviv on Wednesday where he will make a very visible show of U.S. support for the country.

U.S. officials have said they believe at least a few Americans are being held hostage by Hamas, and Biden will seek an update on the hostage situation while he is in the region, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

NPR staffers Jaclyn Diaz, Bill Chappell and Steve Inskeep reported from Washington, D.C. NPR staffers Aya Batrawy and Peter Kenyon contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Daniel Estrin and Samantha Balaban contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now, the many voices we're hearing from the war include a spokesman for Hamas. His name is Ghazi Hamad. And he came on the line from a location that he preferred not to specify, though he said he was in Gaza, which Hamas governs. The U.S. and the European Union label Hamas a terror group. I asked him what the group had hoped to accomplish with its surprise attack on Israel that killed many civilians.

GHAZI HAMAD: We want to get the attention of the world. Please, look at the Palestinians. We are under oppression and torture and collective punishment all the time. This is our message to the world.

INSKEEP: Well, if I can, you certainly got the attention of the world, but these are the headlines that people are seeing. As reported on NPR now, Hamas attacked a concert, chased young people into a bomb shelter, threw grenades in, then came in shooting and took hostages. This is one of many incidents involving unarmed civilians.

HAMAD: This is, I can - 100%, this is a fake story. This is a fake story, 100%.

INSKEEP: Ghazi Hamad repeatedly denied that Hamas ever targeted civilians, although the attackers did kill civilians, as we hear from a survivor elsewhere on today's MORNING EDITION. And Hamas is holding civilian hostages right now. When we asked about them, the Hamas spokesman brought up Israel's conduct.

HAMAD: Every day they provoke the Palestinians, every day. And you expect from us as a Palestinian to be polite and to throw flowers on the soldiers and tanks who are killing us. What do you expect from the Palestinians to do?

INSKEEP: The young people, including children who've been taken hostage - did they do this to you?

HAMAD: Look, as human beings, as human beings, we - even the hostages, we give him good protection, good shelter, good - all they need. We never...

INSKEEP: Well, what they need is to be released. Would you release them?

HAMAD: OK, OK, but it is a war now. First, our priority now is to stop aggression and death in Gaza. We want to stop this. After that, we can talk about anything. But I think we have to stop.

INSKEEP: In our conversation, Hamad was more concerned with Palestinian civilians, to whom Israel has cut off food, water and electricity even as its forces drop bombs.

HAMAD: Why was this against the civilians? Because you could not reach the fighters, the military brigades. So you pour your anger, your frustration, your retaliation on the civilians. These people are brutal.

INSKEEP: Israel, as you know very well, called upon civilians to leave the northern section of Gaza. More than a million people were told to move. And I have a news dispatch here from the Associated Press which says the following - Hamas called the evacuation order psychological warfare aimed at breaking Palestinian solidarity and urged people to stay. Are you, in fact, urging people to remain in the war zone?

HAMAD: We will not allow for a new Nakba for the Palestinians.

INSKEEP: Nakba - that's an Arabic word meaning catastrophe, which is what Palestinians call their mass displacement during the creation of the state of Israel.

HAMAD: We have a first Nakba in 1948, when Israel expelled more than half million Palestinians from their villages and cities. And they built their state on the skulls and the blood of Palestinians. Now we want to stay at our home. We ask our people to stay there, yes.

INSKEEP: So I'd like to know if you're also preventing people from fleeing.

HAMAD: We want people to stay, yes.

INSKEEP: If you are telling people to stay because you think that Israel wants to take the land, are you effectively using civilians as human shields, which is a charge that Israel often makes?

HAMAD: No, no, no. Never. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, these are our brothers, our mothers, our sisters, our family. How can we could use them as a shield to...

INSKEEP: Well, you're telling them to stay.

HAMAD: No, no - to stay to stand against the Israeli evacuation.

INSKEEP: Hamad repeatedly talked of a 75-year occupation, which is a reference to the existence of Israel itself. His group's goal remains erasing it.

HAMAD: Israel is making troubles and problems and dilemmas and tragedies in this region every day. They have disputes with all countries here. They could not be a good neighbor here. We want to liberate the whole Palestine, that's right, because Israel has no right to exist in this region.

INSKEEP: I want to ask about a much more limited goal if I can. What efforts is Hamas able to make in the situation that exists today to alleviate even slightly the suffering of the Palestinian people that you govern?

HAMAD: Look, we are doing hard effort with different countries - with the Egyptians, with the Qatari, with the Turkish, with Iranian - with different people in order to see how to save our people in Gaza. So we are working day and night, day and night. But you know that most of the countries, this world, is full of hypocrisy, that they just are giving some sweet words and some good statements, but nothing is done on the ground. They let Israel to do what they want. They give Israel - especially the United States, they give Israel green light to go to Gaza, kill people, destroy homes, destroy Hamas. But Hamas will stay here. Hamas will continue to fight against the occupation.

INSKEEP: Ghazi Hamad, thank you very much for your time.

HAMAD: Thank you very much.

INSKEEP: NPR's Greg Myre was listening to the Hamas spokesman along with us. Greg has spent seven years covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has covered the region for many more years than that, has spoken with many Hamas leaders. Greg, good morning.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: What comments jumped out at you from that interview?

MYRE: Well, the key line for me was when he said, quote, "Israel has no right to exist in this region." This has been a fundamental tenet of Hamas since the group was founded back in 1987. The group has always taken this extreme position and continues to embrace it. You know, I have had, as you mentioned, many conversations with Hamas leaders and members, and they tend to follow this pattern. They often begin talking about resistance to Israel and obtaining Palestinian rights. But when you press them, Hamas leaders almost always say that Israel simply shouldn't exist.

INSKEEP: And the Palestinians, of course, emphasize that the history is important here, that the attack the other day didn't come out of nowhere. And they say that Israel has taken what they view as Palestinian land. But there's also a history of Hamas. What's the group's evolution?

MYRE: Yes, Steve, I think you could look at it in sort of three stages, and the first was in the '90s, in the early 2000s. And Hamas was a spoiler group. It was the smaller, No. 2 Palestinian faction behind Fatah. It rejected negotiations at that time with Israel and would unleash suicide bombings specifically targeting civilians on buses, restaurants, nightclubs, really intended to undermine the peace talks at that time.

And then the second stage was after 2006, when they won the Palestinian elections. And then they took full control of Gaza in a bloody fight with their Palestinian rivals. And now we appear to enter this new phase with Hamas unleashing this most devastating attack ever against Israel. And it bolsters their status among some Palestinians, but it hasn't translated into benefits for the Palestinian people in Gaza, who now face this major Israeli military operation.

INSKEEP: A little bit of context from NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thanks, as always, for your insights.

MYRE: Sure thing, Steve.

(SOUNDBITE OF L'INDECIS' "STAYING THERE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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