Palestinian minister claims Israel intentionally hit hospital
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki is accusing Israel of “intentionally” bombing the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza and says the Strip’s residents are being subjected to genocide.
Malki, who spoke in Saudi Arabia during a meeting of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, says the Israeli military had attacked the same hospital two days earlier and warned doctors there.
Israel has presented evidence showing that an errant Gazan rocket hit the hospital, causing a fire in a parking lot.
Malki adds that he thinks the international community is allowing Israel to kill under the “slogan of self-defense.”
Malki claims that Israeli bombing has killed 1,300 children in the Gaza Strip in past 11 days.
The Anglican bishop of Jerusalem also says that the hospital received at least three Israeli military orders to evacuate, saying staff members refused to heed them.
Bishop Hosam Naoum says the army delivered the warnings by phone beginning Sunday. He claims Israeli shelling hit two floors of the hospital that day.
Naoum refuses to assign blame for the Tuesday blast, and urges the public to focus on the wider destruction and deaths unfolding in Gaza.
“As people of the cloth, we are not military experts,” he says. “We just want to let people see what is happening on the ground and hope that people will come to the conclusion that we’ve had enough of this war.”