Admin I Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2023
GAZA – The military wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Hamas has vowed to provide concrete proof that Israeli Defence Forces, IDF air strikes hit the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement that it will provide the international community with evidence that the deadly strike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip was made by Israel.
Barhoum said Hamas has a committee tasked with collecting evidence of Israel causing massacres in the Gaza Strip, including the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital. Such evidence, he said, is plentiful and includes eyewitness accounts and video footage.
“Hamas will publish all the evidence to the world that confirms this massacre was committed intentionally, and will present it to international jurisdictions,” the Hamas official said in an interview with Newsweek, without indicating when that will happen.
Barhoum claims that Israel struck the hospital with guided missiles hours after Israel’s General Security Service contacted the hospital’s management several times and threatened to blow it up.
According to Palestinian data, the October 17 strike on Al-Ahli Hospital killed 471 people and injured 342 others. Palestine put the responsibility for the incident on the Israeli Air Force, while Israel said the explosion at the hospital was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that went off course after it was fired.
A period of mourning has been declared in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. The strike derailed plans to hold a four-way summit in Amman, which was scheduled to be attended by Egyptian and US Presidents Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Joe Biden, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.
More than 3,400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 wounded. Also, up to 1,500 Israelis have been killed and almost 4,200 wounded.
