People inspect the area of Al-Ahli hospital on October 18, 2023, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed following an air strike that Israeli and Palestinian officials have blamed on each other.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
European leaders reacted to the death of hundreds of civilians at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza on Monday evening. Israel has claimed a misfired missile by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad caused the destruction while militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza strip, has blamed an Israeli air strike for the event.
“France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza which caused so many Palestinian victims,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X (formerly, Twitter), late on Monday night. Mr. Macron said that nothing justified an attack on a hospital or on civilians and called for clarity around the circumstances of the attack.
Israel-Hamas war updates — October 18, 2023
The French President urged access to Gaza for delivering humanitarian aid. The strip of land has been sealed off by Israel in the north and Egypt in the south.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, also called for culpability for the crime to be established and accountability for the violence.
“Once again, innocent civilians pay the highest price,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was shocked by the images from the hospital. ”Our hearts are with the families of the victims. It is important that all facts of this incident are disclosed very accurately,” he wrote in Arabic on X.
U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly suggested on Tuesday morning that he was not blaming Israel for the attack.
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“Last night, too many jumped to conclusions around the tragic loss of life at Al Ahli hospital,” he wrote on X.
“Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk,” he said, urging people to stay calm and await the facts. On Monday night he had said that the protection of civilian lives must be the top priority and that the U.K. and its allies would “find out” what had happened.
Mr Cleverly’s tweet on Tuesday morning came shortly after news broke that U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was not responsible for the attack.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Mr Biden said during a visit to Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
