Israel-Hamas war: ‘At least 500 killed’ in strike on hospital as IDF denies blame

At present there are “no immediate plans” to stop arms export licences to Israel, a Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said, after a Palestinian NGO threatened the UK with legal action if it did not stop arms sales to Tel Aviv.

“All export licences are kept under continual review, with applications assessed on a case-by-case basis against strict criteria,” the spokesperson said.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), which previously brought an unsuccessful case against Britain over allowing arms exports to Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday also called for the immediate suspension of all licences for arms exports to Israel.

A Palestinian rights group has threatened legal action against Britain unless it revokes all arms export licences to Israel, which it says has violated international law with its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

West Bank-based Al-Haq, which documents alleged rights violations by Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, asked in a letter sent on Monday to trade minister Kemi Badenoch for Britain to confirm that no British “weapons are being used in Israel/Palestine or against Palestinians.”

Or, Britain should “immediately suspend and/or revoke all extant licences to Israel and undertake not to grant any further licences until Israel ceases to violate international law”.

If it does not receive a full response by 30 October, Al-Haq’s lawyers said the group will consider taking legal action against Britain for unlawfully licensing arms exports that could be used in breach of international law.

The group said there is “clear evidence that Israel has repeatedly and gravely breached international law in these last 10 days alone” since the Hamas assault on Israel.

There have been competing claims and denials from Israeli and Palestinian officials over who was responsible for the attack on a hospital in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority’s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of a massacre.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu minced no words in blaming Palestinian militants for the explosion.

“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF,” he said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”

The IDF blamed a Palestinian militant group called Palestine Islamic Jihad which, like Hamas, is viewed by the United States as a terrorist organisation.

“Following an additional review and cross-examination of the operational and intelligence systems, it is clear that the IDF did not strike the hospital in Gaza,” IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement.

“The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation,” he said.

Daoud Shehab, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, told Reuters: “This is a lie and fabrication, it is completely incorrect. The occupation is trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”

During Monday’s The Five, Watters discussed the recent Hamas terror attack on Israel, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, while many more were injured and dozens were taken back to Gaza as captives.

“I don’t like how people try to differentiate between the Palestinians and Hamas,” he said.

The Fox News host went on: “To me, I see people with guns. That’s Hamas. The people without the guns are the Palestinians. They believe the same thing. The Palestinians hire Hamas to run their government. You poll them; they all love killing Jews. It’s in their charter. They say they believe in suicide bombings.”

Martha McHardy reports on the controversy.

The explosion in a Gaza hospital which killed at least 500 people on Tuesday has further complicated efforts to contain the crisis.

In one sign of this, Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi cancelled a summit his country was to host in Amman with US president Joe Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders.

In another, Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah who were throwing rocks and chanting against president Mahmoud Abbas as popular anger boiled.

The blast drew condemnation across the Arab world, and protests were staged at Israel’s embassies in Turkey and Jordan and near the US embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas toward demonstrators.

Television footage showed protests in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taz, as well as in the Moroccan capital Rabat and Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group denounced what it said was Israel’s deadly attack on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza, which is run by the Anglican church, and called for “a day of unprecedented anger” against Israel and Mr Biden’s visit.

About 500 Palestinians were killed in a blast at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other and that ignited protests in the West Bank and around the Middle East.

Health authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that an Israeli air strike caused the blast while Israel’s military attributed it to a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

The blast was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched a bombing campaign to retaliate for 7 October Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities that killed 1,300 people.

The blast took place on the eve of a visit by US president Joe Biden to Israel to show support for the country in its war with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, and to hear how Israel plans to minimize civilian casualties.

Reuters could not independently verify who was responsible for the blast.

Before Tuesday’s blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel’s 11-day bombardment.

Hundreds of Palestinian Americans are still stuck in Gaza after the US State Department claimed they would be allowed to leave through Egypt’s border crossing near Rafah.

Families — many with children — sat with their suitcases outside the border crossing on Monday waiting for news on whether or not they’d be allowed to leave besieged Gaza.

One woman, Maha Barkat, told NBC News that her family is “surviving on sandwiches” while they wait to escape.

“We are American citizens and should be treated the same as the Americans who got put on planes out of Tel Aviv,” she said on Monday.

More details in the full story from Graig Graziosi.

A professor at the University of California, Berkeley has urged law firms not to hire some of his students, accusing them of being “antisemitic”, as the on-campus crisis over the Middle Eastern conflict continues.

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, a teacher of corporate law at the prestigious California university claimed members of the student body “advocate hate and practice discrimination” – adding that antisemitic conduct on campuses including Berkeley was “nothing new”.

It comes amid feuds over free speech at colleges across the US, ignited by the war between Israel and Hamas. The furore started following a statement released by a group of student organisations at Harvard University.

More than a million people living in Gaza have been driven from their homes by the Israeli Defence Force as it carries out retaliatory military actions in the wake of Hamas‘ terror attack on 7 October, which left 2,000 Israelis dead.

The Palestinians living in Gaza have nowhere to run. Mr DeSantis said the US should not take any Palestinian refugees, claiming they are all antisemitic.

My colleague Graig Graziosi reports: