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The Gaza war has thrust back to the forefront of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the need to find a peaceful settlement, a matter that was largely ignored by the US administrations in recent years, in favor of expanding the Abrahams Accords as a means to achieving lasting regional peace.
The strike on Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which is believed to have caused hundreds of deaths, has provoked outrage and condemnation from around the world, touching off popular protests in several Arab countries.
Hamas and Israel traded blame for the carnage, with the former accusing the Hebrew state of deliberate targeting of the sanctuary where hundreds of displaced people have taken shelter, and the latter claiming that the explosion at the hospital was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired.
With Israel’s immediate goal clearly stated, namely to take revenge for the October 7 Hamas incursion through the eradication of the militant Palestinian group, and the Iran-backed Hamas determined to survive the onslaught, the window of diplomacy is likely narrowing in such an imbroglio.
However, the latest escalation in the raging conflict in Gaza, which entered its 12th day on Wednesday, could reinvigorate diplomatic efforts to stop the violence, and open safe corridors for the prompt delivery of humanitarian aid to the densely-populated enclave, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, as well as start exploring what should happen diplomatically after the rubble has settled.
Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to be held in the morning of October 18, following the deadly strike on the hospital, Russian ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanski said on Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the strike on the Gaza hospital as a “tragedy.” “It’s a horrible event, hundreds of dead and wounded. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe. I really hope that this will be a signal that this conflict must be brought to an end as soon as possible,” Putin said during an official visit to China.
The European Union, while condemning the bombing of the civilians-packed hospital, avoided attributing the blame for the blast. The “facts need to be established” first, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen declared on Wednesday.
But her top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, took a sterner tone on the scale of the Israeli reaction. “Cutting water supplies and food off from civilian populations isn’t in line with the rules of law. We cannot make the people of Gaza responsible for the terrible actions of Hamas,” Borrell said, underlining divergences within the EU over developments of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for giving humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip “without delay,” stressing that “nothing can justify targeting civilians.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza,” but without attributing responsibility.
For its part, regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which reportedly halted a bid to normalize relations with Tel Aviv, condemned the hospital strike as “a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms,” denouncing Israel’s “continuous attacks against civilians.”
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, condemned the “Israeli” attack which “resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of people.”
US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday in yet another show of Washington’s solidarity with Tel Aviv, said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life,” in the hospital explosion. He, however, backed the Israeli authorities’ version blaming Palestinian fighters for the carnage.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared a day of “public mourning” on Wednesday and said that 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.
The Security Council on Monday rejected a Russian resolution condemning spiraling violence in the Middle East. Delegates had refused to back a motion that did not single out Hamas for its surprise attack on Israel that left at least 1,400 people dead.
Israel has responded to the attack with air strikes that have left more than 3,000 Gazans dead.
