In a conflict already freighted with allegations of war crimes, a strike on a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday evening has divided opinion, set back hopes for a diplomatic end to fighting and deepened global anguish over the prospect of more civilian deaths.
The early evening blast at the al-Ahli Hospital killed 471 and injured over 300, a spokesman for Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, told The Washington Post.
Palestinian and Israeli officials blame each other for the strike. In the immediate aftermath, Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, said an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the destruction at the medical facility. Hours later, Israel’s military announced that a rocket fired toward Israel by the Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian militant group, had hit the hospital.
The blast was the single deadliest incident of civilians in Gaza since the war began, coming 10 days after Hamas’s Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel. Israeli authorities said Hamas’s attack killed 1,400 people and resulted in 200 others taken hostage. Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza that local authorities say have killed at least 3,400 people.
