The Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, commonly known as Al-Muadamiya, in Gaza has been labeled a "massacre" by Western media outlets. This tragic event claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinian martyrs and left numerous others injured, posing a threat to Middle East stability and undermining diplomatic efforts to secure the release of detainees held by the Palestinian Hamas movement, as well as jeopardizing the creation of a safe passage for foreigners out of the region.
The American network, NBC, also referred to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza Hospital as a "massacre." Leonard Rubenstein, a professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, who has studied violence against medical facilities during wars for 25 years, stated that the casualty toll was the highest he had witnessed in a hospital bombing throughout his career.
Under the headline "Gaza Hospital Bombing Sparks Angry Protests Across the Middle East," the British newspaper, The Guardian, reported on demonstrations erupting in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran, condemning the airstrike. The same newspaper conveyed that Palestinians "believed the hospital to be a safe haven," characterizing the attack as the deadliest in terms of casualties in the five wars between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement since 2007.
In a similar vein, the British newspaper, The Telegraph, saw the incident as a threat to Middle East stability, highlighting that protests in Iran bore slogans such as "Death to Britain and France," and some demonstrators threw eggs at the doors of the French embassy in Tehran, expressing dissatisfaction with the Western stance.
On a different note, the American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, opined that the targeting of Gaza Hospital in Gaza undermined diplomatic efforts to secure the release of detainees held by Hamas, as well as the opportunity to create a safe passage for foreigners out of the region.
The organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) described the hospital bombing as a "horrific and unacceptable massacre," while the World Health Organization condemned the strike, noting that "the hospital provided shelter for patients, healthcare providers, and internally displaced persons."
Regarding President Biden's visit to the region, The Guardian observed that Biden's visit comes amid a "storm," as the hospital bombing led to the cancellation of a planned quadripartite summit today in the Jordanian capital, Amman. This summit was under the auspices of Jordan's King Abdullah II and was set to include President Sisi, alongside his American and Palestinian counterparts. The latter promptly left Jordan and returned to Ramallah after the hospital bombing.
According to the American magazine, Politico, Biden's unusual visit to the Middle East at this time is "fraught with risks," especially in the wake of the Gaza hospital bombing.
