From Tripoli to Tehran, there was a furious response across the Muslim world to a blast that ripped through a Gaza hospital killing hundreds of people late Tuesday, October 17. Health authorities in Gaza said the explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital killed between 200 and 300 people and was caused by the latest in a wave of Israeli airstrikes. Hamas said in a statement that 500 had been killed in the blast. The Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.
On the ground in Gaza, there were scenes of chaos as the injured and dead were taken to nearby medical centers. There, scores of bodies cloaked in blood-stained sheets and white plastic wrap lined the floors. Stunned relatives tried to identify loved ones.
"We were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room," said Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). "Hospitals are not a target," he said. "This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough."
In Tehran, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British and French embassies in the early hours of Wednesday, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said, as regional anger grew over the deadly strike on the hospital.
"Death to France and England," protesters shouted, throwing eggs at the walls of the French embassy compound in the Iranian capital. The gatherings ended peacefully at around 3 am (or 1:30 am in Paris). Israel and the United States do not have embassies in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations with Iran. Several thousand people also gathered in Palestine Square in central Tehran to voice their anger, according to an AFP photographer.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of "public mourning" on Wednesday and said the strike on the hospital would turn against Israel and its US ally. "The flames of the US-Israeli bombs, dropped this evening on the Palestinian victims injured at the... hospital in Gaza, will soon consume the Zionists," Raisi said, according to the IRNA agency. "Iran is in mourning," he added.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called in a message on X, formerly Twitter, for "global unity" against Israel, a "regime more hated than the Islamic State." Tehran also called on Arab countries that have established relations with Israel to break them.
Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities including Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces who fired back with stun grenades.
Others threw stones at Israeli checkpoints, where soldiers killed one Palestinian, West Bank authorities said.
In Lebanon, demonstrators clashed with security forces outside the US embassy. Stones were hurled and a building was set on fire. The US State Department authorized the departure of "some non-emergency" personnel from the US Embassy in Beirut, citing the "unpredictable security situation."
Hezbollah, Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed armed militant group and political party, called for a "day of rage."
Protestors in Jordan – home to millions of Palestinian refugees – tried to storm the Israeli embassy. Jordan’s foreign minister told state-run television that Jordan had canceled a four-way summit scheduled for Wednesday with US President Joe Biden and other leaders. Ayman Safadi told al-Mamlaka TV that the war between Israel and Hammas was "pushing the region to the brink." He said the summit would be postponed.
International alarm has grown about the devastating impact of the war on Palestinian civilians. About 3,000 Gazans have died in the air campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry – including several senior figures in the organization. Entire neighborhoods have been razed and survivors are left with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.
Washington wants to prevent the conflict from spilling over into the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond. Speaking aboard Air Force One, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said US President Joe Biden would ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "tough questions" about the path ahead.
Biden is also expected to express solidarity with Israelis over the Hamas attacks, which also killed 31 Americans. The attack on Saturday, October 7, was the worst in Israel's 75-year history, carrying painful echoes of past Pogroms and undermining faith in the country's security services.
Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have deployed to the border in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive. Netanyahu has vowed to "defeat Hamas" – although the exact military objectives remain unclear.
With thousands of people killed in conflict and the situation worsening, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Wednesday for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire."