Protests have erupted in several countries hours after an air strike hit a Gaza City hospital, killing at least 500 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Meanwhile both Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II canceled a planned meeting with US President Joe Biden in Amman. Read our live blog for all the latest updates. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 18/10/2023 – 01:31
2 min
1:18am: Biden ‘outraged’, calls on national security team to determine what happened
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was “outraged and deeply saddened” by a deadly explosion on a Gaza hospital, for which Hamas and Israel have traded blame.
Biden had “directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened,” he added in a statement
1:13am: UN chief ‘horrified’ by Gaza air strike
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “horrified” by the deadly strike on a hospital in Gaza that left at least 200 people dead, he said in a social media post Tuesday.
“My heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law,” Guterres said in the message on X, formerly Twitter.
12:55am: Angry protests in front of French, British embassies in Tehran
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday, an AFP correspondent said, as regional anger grows over a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital.
“Death to France and England,” protesters shouted, throwing eggs at the walls of the French embassy compound in the Iranian capital.
12:07am: Biden summit with Arab leaders canceled after Gaza air strike
US President Joe Biden has postponed his visit to Jordan after a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital and will only go to Israel on his Middle East trip, the White House said Tuesday.
Biden decided after “consulting” with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and “in light of the days of mourning” announced by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who was due at the summit along with Egypt’s president, the White House said in a statement.
“The president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded,” the statement added.
12:03am: France’s Macron says ‘nothing can justify’ targeting civilians
French President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing can justify targeting civilians” after a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital and called for humanitarian access to the coastal strip “without delay”.
“Nothing can justify a strike against a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians. France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza which caused so many Palestinian victims. We think of them,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay.”
Key developments from Tuesday, October 17:
An air strike on the Ahli hospital in Gaza City has left at least 500 people dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli Defense Forces have denied it was their rockets, blaming the Islamic Jihad instead. The United Nations, the African Union, and France have all condemned the air strike.
Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)