WASHINGTON (AP) — Here’s what we know about Tuesday’s deadly explosion at a Gaza City hospital.
— As darkness fell in the early evening in Gaza, there were reports of an explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. The Al-Ahly club was packed with victims of 10 days of Israeli air raids, as well as families and others who had taken refuge on hospital grounds.
– A video confirmed by the Associated Press to be from the hospital showed an orange ball of fire and flames sweeping through the building and grounds.
The video showed the outside of the hospital, where countless Palestinian families were camping outside. Torn bodies covered the grass, and dead children lay among the dead.
– The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike, which it said killed at least 500 people.
– Israeli authorities soon denied involvement, saying it appeared to be a misfired Palestinian missile.
– Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II, due to their anger over the hospital explosion, announced their withdrawal from the Arab summit scheduled for Wednesday with President Joe Biden.
The White House and Jordanian government announced within hours of the attack that Biden’s meeting with Arab leaders had been halted.
– Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt and other Arab countries condemned the attack on the hospital, or declared days of national mourning. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced that the hospital explosion was “a clear violation of international law… and humanity.”
– Protests broke out in some Arab cities. In Beirut, demonstrators rode through the city on motorcycles and gathered outside the French embassy and a United Nations facility, protesting the international community’s response to the killing of civilians in Gaza. Crowds of Jordanians gather in front of the Israeli embassy in Amman.
This article originally appeared on apnews.com
