Health officials in Gaza say hundreds of people were killed in a huge blast Tuesday at a hospital in Gaza City, and Israeli and Palestinian officials traded accusations over who was responsible for the devastating explosion.
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike and said at least 500 people were killed in the attack at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
Israeli officials said they did not target a hospital and that their intelligence review indicated the blast was caused by a rocket launched by the militant group Islamic Jihad towards Israel that fell short.
Neither account could be independently corroborated.
The incident, however, sparked global condemnation and violent protests in several Muslim nations.
On the ground, there were scenes of chaos as the injured and dead were taken to nearby medical centres.
There, scores of bodies cloaked in blood-stained sheets and white plastic wrap lined the floors. Stunned relatives tried to identify loved ones.
“We were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room,” said Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
“Hospitals are not a target,” he said. “This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.”
Even amid the uncertainty over what caused the incident at the Christian-run hospital, there was rapid and widespread international condemnation.
“The responsibility for this crime must be established & the perpetrators held accountable,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
The horror of events at Ahli Arab Hospital and the swift backlash threatened to derail Biden’s high-stakes visit to the Middle East, which gets underway Wednesday.
A four-way summit in Amman with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was cancelled.
It would be held “when the decision to stop the war and put an end to these massacres has been taken,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
President Biden said in a statement 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.”
He said the United States “stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict,” and that he has directed his national security team to “continue gathering information about what exactly happened.”
The US president’s visit to Israel will still go ahead. He is expected to express solidarity with Israel over the Hamas attacks, which also killed 31 Americans.
The White House also wants to see steps to minimise the humanitarian impact of Israel’s military response, allowing aid to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip.
About 3,000 Palestinians have died in the air campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry including several senior figures in the organisation.
Entire neighbourhoods have been razed and survivors are left with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.
Washington also wants to prevent the conflict from spilling over into the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond and to get answers from Israel about its military plans.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, said Biden would ask Netanyahu “tough questions” about his plans for the war.
Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have deployed to the border in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive.
