World slams strikes that killed 21, while Israel ‘regrets tragic mishap’

Israel drew condemnation from across the globe over the deadly strikes that have targeted both hospitals and media professionals in Gaza, with at least 21 people, including five journalists, killed in an Israeli double-tap attack on the last partly running hospital in southern Gaza. Many countries have called for a thorough investigation into the strikes.

China, “shocked” by the strike, “condemns the fact that medical personnel and journalists have once again unfortunately lost their lives in the conflict”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in Beijing on Aug 26.

“China is highly concerned about the current situation in Gaza,” he said. “Israel should immediately stop its military operations in Gaza, achieve a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire as soon as possible, fully restore the entry of humanitarian supplies, prevent a larger-scale humanitarian crisis, and work to ease tensions as quickly as possible.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier strongly condemned the killings and called for a prompt, impartial investigation, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Aug 25.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap” at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, adding the military was investigating, while Reuters, the Associated Press, and Al Jazeera issued statements mourning their slain contributors.

Effie Defrin, an Israeli military spokesman, accused Hamas of hiding among civilians but did not provide proof or say whether Israel believed any militants were present during the strikes on the hospital. Hamas rejected accusations that Israel’s hospital targets were militants.

Israel had said it had killed six militants in the attack at Nasser hospital. The Hamas media office said in a statement that one of the six Palestinians that Israel alleged as militants was killed in al-Mawasi, some distance from the hospital, and another was killed elsewhere at a different time, Reuters reported.

The conflict, which began in October 2023, has devastated Gaza. Israel does not permit foreign journalists into the enclave, but local reporters continue to provide coverage. According to Gaza health officials, at least 273 journalists and a total of 62,744 people have been killed since then.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian presidency urged the international community, particularly the UN Security Council and other UN bodies, to provide protection for journalists and hold Israel accountable.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Israel’s strikes represented “an open war against free media, with the aim of terrorizing journalists and preventing them from fulfilling their professional duty of exposing its crimes to the world”.

Nasser Hospital is the last remaining partially functional hospital in southern Gaza amid a crippling aid blockade. Palestinian security sources reported that Israeli warplanes targeted the hospital with at least one missile, followed by a second attack as medical crews arrived to retrieve the dead and wounded.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called the attack “just one episode in a relentless series of massacres deliberately targeting civilians”. Egypt labeled it a “new episode in a long series of blatant Israeli violations of international humanitarian law”.

The president of the United Nations General Assembly Philemon Yang strongly condemned Israel’s strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, his spokesperson Sharon Birch said on Aug 26. “The killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, of journalists and of medical personnel is unacceptable and must stop”, she said.

Other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Turkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, condemned the strike, calling it “unacceptable” or “intolerable” and urging an investigation.

As the strike has drawn one of the strongest waves of international condemnation, Arhama Siddiqa, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad in Pakistan, said Netanyahu’s framing of the incident as a “tragic mishap” has done little to temper criticism.

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story. 

Contact the writers atcuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn