The World Health Organisation has strongly condemned the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday which was reported to have led to hundreds of fatalities and injuries.
In a statement released by the World Health stating that the hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there.
It said further that the hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military.
“The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced”, WHO added.
The World Body called for the immediate active protection of civilians and health care adding that evacuation orders must be reversed. “International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted”, it said.
Meanwhile, report has it that at least 500 people have been killed in the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the middle of Gaza City, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The hospital served as a shelter for thousands of residents who fled their homes in northern Gaza seeking safety from Israeli airstrikes while the residents stranded in Gaza are running out of medicine, food, water and power.
The Israel Defense Forces denied responsibility for the attack, saying a failed launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad caused the blast.
“From the analysis of the operational systems of the IDF, an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed in the vicinity of the hospital, when it was hit,” IDF said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital.”
United States President, joe Biden said in a written statement Tuesday evening that he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted.”
His statement continued: “Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened.
“The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy,”
Also, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said earlier Tuesday that Gaza hospitals were estimated to have less than 24 hours of fuel left.
While the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of mourning following the attack.
Israel who declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on Saturday.
The large-scale surprise assault has left at least 900 dead in Israel, prompting a lethal volley of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that killed at least 687 people.
As they retreated into Gaza, the militants claimed to have taken at least 100 hostages with them and have threatened to kill them if airstrikes target Gaza without warning. Israel has pledged that Hamas will pay a heavy price.
The Israeli army also ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to get out of Gaza and move south within the next 24 hours while deadline is expected to have expired as Israel appears set for a massive ground invasion of Gaza with over 300,000 soldiers.