The drama at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza has caused a wave of indignation in the Middle East, with massive protests in front of Israeli consular buildings, United States and France. The bombing has caused at least 500 deaths – according to data provided by Hamas that has not been independently verified – when it hit a hospital center that was packed with Gazans seeking refuge after Israel’s order to evacuate the north of the Strip. , in the face of Benjamin Netanyahu’s imminent ground offensive.
After the attacka steady trickle of people approached the Israeli consulate in Istanbul with Turkish and Palestinian flags, shouting “genocidal” slogans. The protesters threw objects and firecrackers at the building, although they were quelled by the police, who fired tear gas. The protest spread to the capital, in front of the Israeli embassy in Ankara and also in Malatya, in the southeast of the country.
There, in the town of Kürecik, the United States has a military installation, which was attacked by a crowd shouting slogans for Palestine. The gendarmerie and the provincial government went to the place to meet with several Islamist organizations that had called for the protest to reduce tensions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, the Islamist AKP, declared three days of mourning for the hospital massacre.
In Amman, protesters also tried to storm the Israeli embassy, chanting slogans in support of Hamas and calling for the closure of the diplomatic building. The police dispersed the encounter with tear gas. Shortly before the protest, the Jordanian authorities announced the cancellation of the meeting with the American president, Joe Biden, who visited Israel this Wednesday to reiterate his support for Netanyahu.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, who has received strong criticism in the Palestinian territories for his alleged lack of authority and his dealings with the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, was scheduled to attend the canceled meeting in Amman. In several cities in this territory, massive protests took place hours before the attack on the Gaza hospital, calling for Mazen’s resignation.