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A Gaza City hospital became the casualty of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Tuesday. A blast at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, as per a Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson, resulted in the death of "hundreds". The mass casualty has sparked protests worldwide.
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Death toll
As per the Gaza civil defence chief, 300 people have been killed in the blast. However, health ministry sources, as cited by Reuters, claim at least 500 people were killed in the explosion.
Speaking to the press, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra said hundreds have been killed in the blast and that rescuers were still removing bodies from the rubble.
Overall, before the hospital blast, in Gaza Israeli bombardment had claimed at least 3,000 lives, while in Israel, the death toll stood at 1,300.
(Photograph:AFP)
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Who is responsible for the blast?
Israeli and Hamas officials have blamed each other for the attack. Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that an Israeli air attack was behind the attack.
However, Israel Defense Forces, as per AFP, has attributed the blast to a misfired rocket by Hamas.
In a statement, the IDF said: "The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation." Hamas has labelled this accusation "lies".
(Photograph:AFP)
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A complication
As per the Reuters report, regardless of who is behind it, the blast will complicate efforts to contain the crisis.
Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, cancelling a summit in Amman, can be seen as one sign of the complication.
(Photograph:Reuters)
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Protests in West Bank
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, angry protestors threw rocks and shouted chants against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled following the tragic hospital explosion.
(Photograph:Reuters)
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Protests elsewhere
In Iran, Lebanon and elsewhere, hundreds gathered to express anger over the deadly strike. In Tehran, protestors clashed, gathered outside the British and French embassies, throwing eggs and chanting "Death to France and England," reports AFP.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared Wednesday a day of "public mourning" and said the strike on the hospital would turn against Israel and its US ally.
"The flames of the US-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the Palestinian victims injured at the... hospital in Gaza, will soon consume the Zionists," Raisi said, according to the IRNA agency.
"Iran is in mourning," he added.