Russia, UAE call for emergency Security Council meeting after Gaza hospital massacre
Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli bombardment struck a packed hospital compound in central Gaza, killing at least 700 people, including patients and displaced Palestinians sheltering inside.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, announced in a post on the Telegram messaging application on Tuesday night that his country and the UAE have requested the convening of an open session at the Security Council before October 18 due to the Israeli airstrike against al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, in Gaza.
The attack on the hospital quickly drew widespread international condemnation, as news outlets and social media became filled with images of burning rooms and heavy stretchers.
“This is outrageous and again it shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media.
UN Special Coordinator condemns Israel’s Gaza hospital carnage
Meanwhile, Tor Wennesland, the United Nations Special Coordinator for West Asia Peace Process, strongly condemned the Israeli strike on the Gaza hospital.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the horrific attack against the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City,” he said, which resulted in the loss of at least 700 lives and wounded hundreds of others, including women and children.
“I express my deepest sympathies to the families of the victims,” he said.
Wennesland reiterated that “attacks against civilians are unacceptable and that hospitals and medical facilities and personnel have special protection under international humanitarian law. Civilians cannot continue to pay the price. The horror and violence must stop.”
Abbas: Gaza hospital carnage intolerable
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, denounced the Israeli bombardment of a hospital in Gaza as a great calamity and a heinous war crime, which cannot be tolerated or allowed to go unpunished.
He added that the occupying Israeli regime has crossed all red lines, and “We will not allow it to escape accountability and punishment.”
Abbas called on Palestinians from all walks of life “to close the ranks and foster unity, not to shift the compass, and not to be drawn into strife from which only the enemies of the Palestinian nation will benefit.”
The Palestinian president stressed that “the aggression against our people must stop,” calling on the international community to hold Israel accountable and provide international protection for Palestinians.
ME
