MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/. Tuesday’s strike on the hospital in Gaza was genocide against the Palestinian people, former UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov said.

"Bombing a hospital full of children and refugees is not a pathway towards peace. This is genocide," Nurmagomedov wrote on Instagram (banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).

Arab media outlets reported on October 17 that Israeli airstrikes on the central part of Gaza City had hit a hospital. The attack killed over 500 people and left hundreds wounded, according to the Palestinian radical group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility, saying in a statement that the powerful explosion in the Gaza City hospital had resulted from a misfired rocket launched from within the Palestinian enclave. The IDF blamed the Islamic Jihad group for the rocket strike on the hospital.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the US to provide satellite images that would help clarify the situation and identify the culprit behind the tragedy.