Here’s what happened on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
finding
- Palestinian officials say at least 500 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahly Arab Hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip.
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the targeting of hospitals in the Gaza Strip as an unacceptable “abhorrent massacre of war.”
- “The whole world needs to know that it was not the IDF that attacked the hospital in Gaza, but the barbaric terrorists from Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to the Israeli military.
- Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shehab told Reuters: “This is a lie, a fabrication and completely wrong. The occupation forces are trying to cover up the horrific crimes and massacres they have committed against civilians. There is.”
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres just called for an “immediate” ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
- He also said that attacks by Hamas do not justify “collective punishment” against the Palestinian people.
- At least 37 more people were killed in separate air strikes targeting two areas of a refugee camp in northern Gaza, officials said.
- The Israeli military confirmed that two more soldiers have died since the start of the war on October 7.
diplomacy and protests
- Jordan on Wednesday canceled a planned summit between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders in Amman to discuss Gaza, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
- Biden, who is visiting Israel, said in a statement that he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at Al-Ahly Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip and the horrific loss of life that resulted.”
- “The United States unequivocally supports the protection of civilian life during conflict, and we mourn the lives of the patients, medical staff, and other innocent people killed and injured in this tragedy.”
- The hospital explosion sparked condemnation across the Arab world, with protests held near the Israeli embassies in Turkey and Jordan and the US embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators.
- Palestinian security forces in Ramallah use tear gas and stunners to disperse protesters who were throwing rocks and chanting at President Mahmoud Abbas as public anger boils over after a deadly attack on a Gaza hospital. Fired a grenade.
- Lebanon’s Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has condemned Israel’s deadly attack on the Anglican-run al-Ahly Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip and called for an “unprecedented day of outrage” against Israel and the Biden visit. .
- The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a Brazilian draft resolution calling for a humanitarian moratorium on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas to allow humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
- The U.S. State Department will continue to offer government-sponsored charter flights from Tel Aviv to Europe until at least Sunday to help Americans leave Israel.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited a marked rise in anti-Semitism in Canada following the Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent deadly Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.