Israel-Gaza latest: ‘Dangerous moment’ for Middle East as protests erupt after hospital blast ‘kills at least 500’ in Gaza
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Israel-Gaza latest: ‘Dangerous moment’ for Middle East as protests erupt after hospital blast ‘kills at least 500’ in Gaza
Protests have erupted across the region following an explosion at a Gaza hospital which is said to have killed at least 500 people. Israel has denied it was responsible, claiming it was caused by a misfired rocket barrage launched from Gaza – but its evidence is so far “inconclusive”.
Wednesday 18 October 2023 09:25, UK
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Key points
Morning summary – as blame traded for hospital attack that officials say killed at least 500 Palestinians View post
Protests erupt across Arab world over attack – as Hezbollah calls for day of ‘unprecedented anger’ View post
Alistair Bunkall analysis: Amid claim and counter-claim – five things to consider this morning View post
Jordan cancels summit with Biden and Middle East View post
Israeli army tells Gaza City residents to evacuate View post
Podcast:How to negotiate with Hamas View post
The war explained:Who are Palestinian Islamic Jihad? View post|Geography of Gaza and how it makes ground offensive tough View post|A history of this conflict View post
Live reporting by Brad Young and Emily Mee
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20m ago
04:14
Analysis of claim and counter-claim: Five things to consider this morning
Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall has given his thoughts amid claim and counter-claim following the IDF’s news conference on the explosion at al Ahli hospital.
Palestinian officials say at least 500 people were killed in the blast last night – though the IDF suggested in its news conference that this number was inflated.
Israel has blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while Hamas has pointed the finger at Israel.
Many in Arab world won’t believe Israel
“What the Israelis say is one thing,” says Bunkall. “People will have already made up their minds, particularly in the Arab world.
“Whatever the Israelis have to say and however much detailed intelligence they release to prove their position, there will be a lot in the Arab world who just simply do not believe it.
“It is not just Hamas and Islamic Jihad who have claimed that Israel hit that hospital, a number of aid organisations have done so as well, and so did the Dean of St George’s in Jerusalem, Richard Sewell – it is their hospital which was hit.”
Footage released by Israel that it claims shows it was not responsible for the blast is “inconclusive”, says Bunkall.
Militant rockets can misfire
Without making a judgement on what occurred last night, Bunkall says rockets launched by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been known to “misfire and they do land short”.
Our 7.37 post outlined the evidence Israel has put forward to back up its denial of responsibility.
Do militant groups have rockets that can cause this damage?
Bunkall went on: “I think some people in that press conference might still have some questions, not least about the size of the explosion.
“People are pointing out that when Hamas or Islamic Jihad rockets hit parts of southern Israel, they never really make the sort of damage that we saw at the hospital last night.”
The IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, answered this by saying the scale of the destruction was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad landing in a car park, and cars subsequently exploding.
Information war
Reference was made in the news conference to this now being an information war.
Bunkall said: “The fact that he has come out, spoke on live television at a length we have not seen over the last 12 days, he was happy to take questions. IDF briefings are normally limited to around about half an hour.
“The Israelis will know that it is very, very important that they get their message out there and their message rooted in intelligence and in facts.”
Dangerous moment for Middle East
This is a “dangerous moment” for the Middle East, regardless of who was responsible, says Bunkall.
This could be a “turning point” in the conflict, he suggests.
Will allies of Israel tell the government to “reign it in” or is “the genie out of the bottle”, opening new fronts in Lebanon, the West Bank or Iraq?
In Iraq, US forces reportedly downed two suicide drones near one of their bases this morning.
“This is why what is happening in Gaza is so dangerous for the wider region,” said Bunkall.
Joe Biden will now have to “carefully calibrate” his messaging in Israel this morning, in order to tread the line between support for Israel and “ensuring that there is no further loss of civilian life” and that the conflict does not spread.
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25m ago
04:09
Israel releases audio where Hamas militants purportedly admit Palestinian group was behind hospital blast
Audio released by Israel purportedly shows two Hamas militants discussing the attack on a hospital in Gaza, which Palestinian officials say killed at least 500 people.
Israel claims the audio proves it did not fire the rocket that destroyed the hospital, and that instead it was misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
This group is closely aligned with Hamas. It has denied any involvement – while Hamas and some aid organisations have blamed Israel.
Sky News cannot independently verify this audio from Israel.
Here is the full transcript of the conversation, according to Israel:
Militant 1: I’m telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling and so that’s why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Militant 2: What?
Militant 1: They are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Militant 2: It’s from us?
Militant 1: It looks like it!
Militant 2: Who says this?
Militant 1: They are saying that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel.
Militant 2: What are you saying [name]?
Silence
Militant 2: But God bless, it couldn’t have found another place to explode?
Militant 1: Nevermind, yes, [name] they shot it from the cemetery behind the hospital.
Militant 2: What?!
Militant 1: They shot it coming from the cemetery behind the al Ma’amadani Hospital and it misfired and fell on them.
Militant 2: There’s a cemetery behind it?
Militant 1: Yes, al Ma’amadani is exactly in the compound.
Silence
Militant 2: Where is it when you enter the compound?
Militant 1: You first enter the compound and don’t go toward the city and it’s on the right side of the al Ma’amadani Hospital.
Militant 2: Yes, I know it.
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33m ago
04:01
Biden greets Netanyahu with hug
As we just reported, Joe Biden has landed in Israel – and as soon as he stepped off Air Force One, he was greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The pair embraced, with Mr Biden patting his counterpart on the back.
Our presenter Mark Austin says “one wonders whether after events at the hospital [in Gaza], he considered not coming”.
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42m ago
03:52
Joe Biden arrives in Israel
The US president’s plane Air Force One has touched down in Tel Aviv.
Joe Biden is carrying out a diplomatic mission as concerns grow around the conflict – not least because of a hospital attack in Gaza that Palestinian officials say killed at least 500 people.
Mr Biden will be hoping to prevent the war from spiralling into an even bigger conflict, but this task will be made more difficult as outrage has swept through the Middle East.
He was also scheduled to visit Jordan, but this meeting with Arab leaders was called off as he was leaving Washington – costing him the opportunity for crucial face-to-face conversations.
The president will be speaking with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his trip to Tel Aviv.
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45m ago
03:49
In pictures: Protests in Turkey
Earlier this morning we brought you striking images of protests that erupted in Lebanon following the explosion at al Ahli hospital (see our 7.07am post).
More pictures were taken by the Associated Press in Istanbul, Turkey, where demonstrators lit fires during a protest.
Demonstrations were seen across the region last night, including the West Bank, Jordan, Iran, Iraq.
AP
AP
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1h ago
03:04
IDF says it intercepted audio proving rockets misfired in Gaza
Back to the IDF news conference on the al Ahli explosion, where spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari is saying it would have been “impossible to know what happened as quickly as Hamas claimed they knew”.
He says there was no IDF fire that hit the hospital by land, sea or air and that its radar systems tracked rockets fired from Gaza at the time of the blast.
Watch: IDF spokesman is asked if they’re losing information war
Videos show the failure of a rocket launch from a cemetery behind the hospital and the IDF intercepted communication “between terrorists talking about rockets misfiring”, he says.
He plays an audio which he says backs up his claims.
During the conflict, approximately 450 rockets fired toward Israel have fallen short and landed in Gaza, says the IDF spokesperson.
“We take any incident involving civilians very, very seriously,” he says.
Asked by a journalist why the world should trust Israel, Rear Admiral Hagari says it took five hours to check its facts and cross-reference its information.
He is now asked to respond to a claim made by the Palestinian envoy to Japan that Israel gave the hospital a warning call before the explosion.
Rear Admiral Hagari says he “does not know the answer” but he will check.
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1h ago
02:53
Israel made warning call to hospital before deadly blast – Palestinian envoy
While this IDF news conference continues, the Palestinian envoy to Japan has claimed Israel made a warning call to al Ahli Hospital ahead of the explosion.
The envoy said 500 people had been killed but the death toll was likely to rise further.
Israel has denied it was responsible for the blast, claiming the Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfired rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel.
The Islamic Jihad said it was not involved in the explosion, accusing Israel of striking the hospital.
Hamas and several aid organisations have also blamed Israel.
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1h ago
02:52
IDF accused Hamas of ‘hiding what really happened’ at hospital
The Israeli Defence Forces is holding a news conference following the explosion at al Ahli Hospital.
Spokesperson for the IDF, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, makes the following claims:
A barrage of rockets was launched at 6.15pm by Hamas toward Israel
A barrage of 10 rockets was fired by the Islamic Jihad at 6.59pm
At that time there were reports of an explosion at the hospital.
He accuses Hamas of launching a “global media campaign to hide what really happened”.
They have inflated the number of casualties, he says.
“Analysis of our aerial footage confirms that there was no direct hit to the hospital itself,” he says, adding the only damage was to the carpark.
He says an aerial munition launched by Israel would have caused craters and structural damage to nearby buildings, which “do not exist in this instance”.
“The size of damage we see here is due to the warhead of the Islamic Jihad rocket.”
Our post below contains images which Israel says backs up it claims.
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1h ago
02:37
What evidence has Israel provided to back its claim that it did not attack hospital?
By Adam Parker, OSINT editor
A video released by Israel’s defence force claims damage at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital does not match craters caused by Israeli munitions.
The IDF shared an aerial black and white image of the explosion location. It’s captioned as taken at 22:44 local time, which is hours after the initial reports on an explosion.
Videos and stills of the damage geolocated by Sky News match the location shared by the IDF.
Most of the damage visible in the image appears to be concentrated on the car park with no visible crater.
Sky News is unable to verify the claims.
Hamas and various aid organisations have blamed Israel for the attack.
Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall has described Israel’s evidence so far that it was not responsible as “inconclusive”.
Overnight, the IDF posted a video allegedly showing a rocket failing and falling onto Gaza at the same time the al Alhi hospital was hit.
Israel has said it believes the most likely cause of the explosion at the hospital was a rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfiring.
This group has denied any involvement.
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2h ago
02:26
Health ministry issues ‘distress call’ to petrol stations as hospital fuel dwindles in Gaza
The health ministry in Gaza has issued an “urgent distress call” to petrol station owners and civilians with diesel as hospital supplies run out.
It asked them to contact the ministry “in order to save the lives of the wounded and the sick”.
The alert comes after the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA. yesterday warned all hospitals in Gaza would likely run out of fuel “in 24 hours”.
Hospitals have been relying on backup generators during Israel’s blockade, and an end to electricity would threaten the lives of thousands of patients.
Earlier this week, we heard how health facilities in Gaza were overcrowded with those injured in Israeli airstrikes, with one hospital morgue being forced to turn the carpark into a temporary “graveyard”.
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2h ago
02:07
In pictures: Protestors clash with security forces outside US embassy in Lebanon
As we reported earlier this morning, protests broke out overnight across the Middle East after a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of people.
Among them was a demonstration outside the US embassy in Beirut, where people clashed with Lebanese security forces.
Associated Press photographers captured images of tear gas, a burning building and protestors waving the Palestinian flag and hurling stones.
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2h ago
01:57
Russia calls on Israel to prove it was not behind hospital blast
Russia has said Israel must provide satellite images to prove that it was not involved in the explosion at al Ahli Hospital.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik the blast was a “dehumanising crime”.
Israel and Russia explained: Until now, the Kremlin has underlined the strength of its relations with both Palestinians and Israel.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had long-standing historical ties with the Palestinians but also “a lot in common” with Israel, including the fact that many Israelis are former Russian citizens.
He said Russia sought to play a role in resolving the conflict and warned against it spilling over into other regions.
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3h ago
00:54
Protests erupt – as Hezbollah calls for day of ‘unprecedented anger’
The powerful armed Lebanon-based group, Hezbollah, has called for a day of “unprecedented anger” in protest against Israel and Joe Biden’s visit.
Late last night the group accused Israel of attacking the al Ahli Hospital, where Gaza’s health ministry said at least 500 people have died in an explosion.
Israel has denied responsibility, accusing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group of misfiring a rocket launch, while the Islamic Jihad has denied any involvement.
French embassy in Lebanon
French embassy in Lebanon
Protests erupted overnight in the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and outside the US embassy in Lebanon where tear gas was fired.
“The attack reveals the true criminal face of this entity [Israel] and its sponsor… the United States, which bears direct and complete responsibility for this massacre,” said Hezbollah.
Iran
Iran
AP
Turkey
Turkey
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3h ago
00:35
Israeli army tells Gaza City residents to evacuate
The Israeli military has urged Gaza City residents to move southward in a fresh advisory.
It said there was a “humanitarian zone” with aid available in Al-Mawasi, 17 miles down the coast.
“The IDF calls on Gaza City residents to evacuate south for their protection,” said the military.
The statement repeated previous orders given by the military last week, which instructed more than one million civilians in northern Gaza to move to the south ahead of a potential ground offensive.
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4h ago
00:29
What you need to know this morning
Good morning. If you’re just joining us, let’s bring you up to date.
Blame continues to be traded for an explosion at al Ahli Hospital, in northern Gaza, which the territory’s health ministry said killed 500 people, warning the number of dead could rise to 800.
Hamas accused Israel of striking the hospital, calling it a “crime of genocide” amid its bombardment of the strip, but Jerusalem claimed a misfired rocket barrage by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was responsible for the blast. They said they would – but have yet to – release definitive evidence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “barbaric terrorists” in Gaza bombed the hospital, reiterating Israel’s military was not responsible.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning and cancelled a planned meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Footage taken the moment after the explosion showed fire engulfing parts of the hospital and frantic scenes as medics rushed to help the injured.
Reaction from around the world was swift, with Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Qatar and the World Health Organisation condemning the blast.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Ramallah, West Bank, in protest, with some demonstrators clashing with security forces.
Hezbollah said today would be a “day of unprecedented anger” against Israel.
Joe Biden, who said he was “outraged” by the explosion, is expected to land in Israel this morning to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Away from the hospital blast, other key moments from the last 24 hours include:
Six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school run by the UNRWA aid agency at a refugee camp in Gaza;
Hamas’s government office said at least 940 children and 1,032 women had been killed in Israeli airstrikes since 7 October;
Israel said it “eliminated” senior Hamas commander Ayman Nofal in an airstrike;
UNRWA warned all hospitals in Gaza could run out of fuel “in 24 hours”.
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4h ago
23:35
In pictures: Protesters clash with police and gather outside foreign embassies
We can now bring you the latest images from protests which have erupted across the Middle East.
The reaction in cities, such as Amman, Tehran and Beirut, will complicate efforts by the US to keep the conflict with Israel and Hamas from spreading.
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
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5h ago
22:59
US urges Americans ‘do not travel’ to Lebanon
The US has raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to “do not travel”.
The US State Department made the announcement earlier today as a result of rocket, missile and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah.
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5h ago
22:35
Biden to meet with families ‘who have lost loved ones’ in Tel Aviv trip
Details have emerged of what President Joe Biden plans to do after arriving in Tel Aviv later today.
Speaking on board Air Force One, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the first thing the president will do is meet Benjamin Netanyahu.
The encounter will be a “very small, restricted bilateral meeting”.
After this, the meeting will widen to include the Israeli war cabinet.
The president is then expected to meet with Israeli first responders, and thank them “for all their bravery” during the response to the Hamas attack.
“He will also have a chance after that to meet with some of the families,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.
“It’ll be some of the families of those who have lost loved ones in Israel, and some of the families who still don’t know of their loved ones.”
Ms Jean-Pierre added that some of the family members will include those whose relatives have been taken as hostages.
It is unknown if they will be families of Americans known to have been killed or who remain missing.
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7h ago
21:15
Israel says it will release evidence which it claims shows an Islamic Jihad rocket hit the Gaza hospital
Israel’s military has said it will release evidence – including drone footage and intercepted conversation – that it claims will prove an Islamist militant group was responsible for a deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza.
“We are running on it because someone is doing a fake on us, on Israel,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
It has not been possible to independently verify the claim.
Hundreds of people were killed in a devastating explosion at the al Ahli hospital in an attack that Palestinian officials have blamed on Israel. It is the deadliest single event of the Israel-Hamas war so far.
The carnage triggered new protests against an unprecedented campaign of Israeli aerial bombardments on Gaza in response to a deadly attack on Israel by Hamas, which controls the Palestinian enclave, on 7 October.
Seeking to push back on the allegations, Rear Admiral Hagari said no Israeli aircraft had been operating in the area of the hospital at the time of the explosion.
Read more from Sky News security and defence editor, Deborah Haynes, here…
