Qatar condemns Israeli bombing of Al Ahli Baptist Hospital where at least 500 civilians are feared dead

Qatar condemned in the strongest of terms Israel’s bombing of the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, where at least 500 civilians are feared dead.

Qatar called the bombing a brutal massacre, a heinous crime against defenceless civilians and a blatant violation of the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law.

Qatar Condemns in the Strongest Terms the Israeli Occupation's Bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/z33NeeYAzM

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) October 17, 2023

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip earlier confirmed that at least 500 people had been killed in the Israeli bombing. Gaza’s Hamas government described the attack as a ‘war crime.’

“The hospital was housing hundreds of sick and wounded, and people forcibly displaced from their homes due to other Israeli attacks,” said a statement from the health ministry.

The Al Ahli Hospital had been sheltering families amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza.

Hassan Khalaf, medical director of Al Wafa Hospital, which is less than a kilometre away from the Al Ahli facility, said the hospital ‘is still burning’ after Israel’s attack.

“Where [is there] to go? They want to do massacres and massacres and massacres in Gaza,” he was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

Zaher Sahloul, president of US-based MedGlobal humanitarian organisation, called the mass-casualty Israeli strike as ‘the worst attack on a medical facility in the 21st century.’

“Bombing hospitals is against international law. It’s a war crime. It undermines medical neutrality and the 150-year-old Geneva Conventions, and deprives a distressed local Palestinian community from access to healthcare,” Sahloul said.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the expansion of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip to include civilian objects, including hospitals, schools, and gatherings, was a dangerous escalation and portended dire consequences for the region’s security and stability.

“In this context, the complicity of the international community — sometimes with silence and sometimes with selectivity regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people — will increase tension, expand the cycle of violence, and lead to further escalation and instability,” it said.

The Ministry also called on the international community to assume its responsibility and prevent Israel from committing more crimes against Palestinian civilians.

Around 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since the war erupted on October 7. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed.

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