Outrage, condemnation over deadly Gaza hospital strike

A strike on a Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 471 people, has provoked outrage and condemnation from around the world, with protests on the streets of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the territory, accused Israel of being behind the explosion. The Israeli army blamed it on a misfired rocket attack by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has described the accusations as "lies".

Here are some of the major reactions:

UN

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza".

Guterres "strongly condemned" the strike but without attributing responsibility.

African Union

The African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat accused Israel of a "war crime" following the deadly strike. 

"There are no words to fully express our condemnation of Israel's bombing of a #Gaza hospital today, killing hundreds of people," Faki said on X, formerly Twitter.

Arab League

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said "the West must stop this tragedy immediately".

"Our Arab mechanisms document war crimes, and their perpetrators will not be able to escape justice," he warned. The organisation's flags have been lowered for three days.

Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the strike an "unjustifiable tragedy" without attributing blame.

Lula, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, reiterated his appeal for urgent international action to protect children and civilians in the Israel-Gaza war, in a message posted on X.

China

China's foreign ministry said it is "shocked by and strongly condemns" the strike, calling for an "immediate ceasefire".

Egypt

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned in the strongest terms "the Israeli bombing" of the Ahli hospital, which led to "the deaths of hundreds of innocent victims" among the Palestinians in Gaza.

He called the "deliberate bombing" a "clear violation of international law".

EU

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers "there is no excuse for hitting a hospital full of civilians" and that "facts need to be established" and "all those responsible must be held accountable".

France

French President Emmanuel Macron said "nothing can justify targeting civilians" and that "humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay".

Germany

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "horrified" by the strike and wrote on X that "a thorough investigation of the incident is imperative".

Hezbollah

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, an ally of Hamas, called for a "day of rage" to condemn the strike, blaming Israel for what it called a "massacre".

ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the strike, saying "hospitals should be sanctuaries to preserve human life, not scenes of death and destruction".

Indonesia

Indonesia said the strike "clearly violates international humanitarian law".

"Indonesia also urges the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to immediately take concrete steps to stop attacks and acts of violence in Gaza," the foreign ministry said.

Iran

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of "public mourning" on Wednesday and said the strike at 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. 

Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani called in a statement for an "immediate and urgent resolution" from the UN Security Council to put an end to the "aggression". 

The government has declared three days of mourning for the victims.

Jordan

Israel bears "responsibility for this grave incident," a Jordanian foreign ministry statement said, "strongly condemning" the strike.

Amman subsequently announced the cancellation of a summit on brokering peace in the region due to the involvement of US President Joe Biden, who postponed his trip to Amman in response.

MSF

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was "horrified by the recent bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans".

Qatar

Qatar's foreign ministry called the strike "a brutal massacre" and "a heinous crime against defenceless civilians". 

In a statement, the Gulf state called the explosion a "blatant violation of the provisions of international law" and a "dangerous escalation in the course of the confrontations".

Russia

President Vladimir Putin said the strike was a "tragedy" and showed the need to bring the conflict between Israel and Hamas to an end.

Saudi Arabia

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia condemned the strike as "a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms", denouncing Israel's "continuous attacks against civilians".

Spain

Spain's foreign ministry condemned "the terrible massacre... All our solidarity with the innocent civilian victims."

South Africa

South Africa said there were "no words to fully express" its condemnation of "Israel’s bombing" of the hospital, describing it as a war crime and "the most blatant violation" of international humanitarian law.

Accusing Israel of waging a "genocidal campaign against the Palestinians", the country’s foreign ministry called for an immediate ceasefire.

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the strike as "the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values". 

"I invite all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza," Erdogan wrote on X.

Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured during anti-Israel protests in Istanbul. Turkey will declare three days' mourning, an official said.

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, which established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, condemned the "Israeli" attack.

United States

President Biden said he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion" and "the terrible loss of life that resulted".

He said "data" from the US defence department shows Israel is not behind the strike.

WHO

The chief of the World Health Organization warned that "The situation in #Gaza is spiralling out of control".

"We need violence on all sides to stop," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. "Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives."

"We call... at a minimum to stop any attacks on healthcare facilities," the head of the WHO's European branch, Hans Kluge, told AFP in an interview.