Gaza hospital explosion kills hundreds; Hezbollah speaks of Wednesday's 'rage'

According to the announcement of the Hamas government health agency in the Gaza Strip on the night of October 17 (local time), a large explosion occurred at Ahli Arab Hospital in downtown Gaza City.

This is where hundreds of sick and wounded people are taken in, and is also a shelter for thousands of civilians who have been left homeless by constant attacks from Israel.

The explosion killed at least 200 people. Meanwhile, some other sources said that up to 500 victims died in this incident.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of national mourning in memory of the victims killed in the explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital.

The explosion occurred at a time when Hamas was launching a series of rockets and missiles into central Israel, many of which reached as far as Tel Aviv.

It is still unclear whether the explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike or bombing or by a Hamas rocket falling back into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has blamed Israel for the attack. Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has also blamed Israel for what it called a "massacre" and "atrocity", calling for "tomorrow, Wednesday, to be a day of rage against the enemy".

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF, Israeli army) said that the hospital was a sensitive site, not an IDF target, and that the explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry firmly asserted that “the IDF was not conducting any operations in the area at the time of the incident.”

For their part, the Israeli press, including The Times of Israel on October 18, published a series of videos from surveillance cameras, from Al Jazeera news agency... about an explosion inside Palestinian territory caused by a failed rocket launch to prove the IDF's assessment.

However, according to The Times of Israel, despite the IDF's denial, countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain along with Egypt, Jordan and Türkiye have blamed Israel for the explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.