Hundreds killed in hospital in Gaza with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the destruction.

 

Protesters in the West Bank respond to the incident. Reuters. 

Hundreds of people were killed in a blast at a hospital in Gaza with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the destruction. Reuters. The number of deaths is unclear but sources have said between 300 and 500 people are dead with many more wounded. Reaction to the incident has been extreme and greatly complicate any efforts to end the war. Joe Biden was due to meet with Arab leaders including the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Palestine but those meetings have been canceled in the wake of the explosion. Hamas claims that the al-Ahli hospital was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike but Israel claims that the explosion was caused by malfunctioning rocket fired by Islamic Jihad. 

My Comment:

It matters little who is responsible for this incident, if anyone is actually responsible at all. The Arab world is furious over it and won't listen to arguments that this was a deliberate attack. And it's not like the other side is being very reasonable about it either, with some claiming this was a deliberate attack by the jihadists. 

What seems a lot more likely to me is that this was just a tragic accident caused when a rocket malfunctioned and crashed into the hospital. The people that fired it obviously bare responsibility but it's very unlikely that this was in any way a deliberate attack. It's just one of those crazy things that happened in a war, at least that is what I think is more likely. 

I also don't think either side has a real reason to blow up this hospital. The Israelis would have to know that doing so would backfire on them horrendously, the reaction we are seeing in the Arab World is entirely predicable. I guess it is possible that it was a tragic accident on their side as well, with a bomb going off course or something, but I can't imagine them doing this on purpose, even if there was a legit reason to bomb this hospital. And I also don't think Hamas or the Islamic Jihad would do this either, just because it would be hard to pull off, those rockets are not very accurate to say the least. 

People are wondering how the entire hospital appeared to blow up. I think it's fairly easy to explain, hospitals are full of oxygen for patients and diesel fuel for generators and if the rocket or bomb hit either of those systems the whole place could go up in flames. And if Hamas was indeed storing weapons in there it would make a lot of sense for the massive explosion that was shown in some of the videos we have seen from the disaster. 

It's actually totally irrelevant who is responsible for the disaster since most people are so entrenched. And it's not likely that the responsible party is going to come forward and say "my bad". And even if they did, why would anyone believe them? People don't trust either side and both sides have a major motivation to lie. 

Regardless of who is responsible for this tragedy, the reaction to it is extreme. We are already seeing widespread protests and riots and those will probably get worse over time. And Joe Biden's diplomatic effort with powers in the region? Those are dead as a doornail. 

Speaking of Biden, he should have absolutely called off his visit to Israel. The country is not going to be safe for him to visit and as much as I dislike him, if anything happens to him it will be a disaster for pretty much everyone. It would draw the United States into the war, no question, and hand leadership over to the one person on earth less qualified to have it than Joe Biden himself, Kamala Harris. And it's not even going to accomplish anything at this point, diplomacy isn't going to fix this. Hopefully nothing happens tomorrow at his visit...  

I am also expecting more terror attacks in response to this, probably from lone wolf attackers. The war is old enough that we might even see some organized terror attacks, but I will not be surprised if more than a few people use this as an excuse to grab a knife or drive a car into some people. They aren't going to care who was responsible for it, they are just going to want to get revenge. 

I also think that some people on the middle are going to buy the idea that Israel is responsible for this and change their opinion, regardless of what the actual truth is (which we probably won't ever know in the first place). Israel had widespread support due to the horrible atrocities Hamas committed but this incident will change the mind of at least a few people. Most people have picked a side and will stick with it but many people will indeed blame Israel for this. 

The media didn't help things. They blamed Israel before any information came out. They have since edited those stories, making it clear that they don't actually know what happened. Given the stakes here they did not help anything by making claims they could not back up...