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Middle East conflict

World does not care about victims of Israeli strikes — top Palestinian diplomat

According to the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health, the attack on the al-Ahli hospital killed 471 people and wounded 342

DUBAI, October 18. /TASS/. The international community is not interested in settling the conflict in the Gaza Strip and is just nonchalantly counting along as the victims of Israeli bombardments pile up, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said.

"The violent war and aggressive policy aiming to create new [Israeli] settlements have to be stopped. However, the international community is just nonchalantly counting the victims of the Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip," he said at a session of the executive committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

On October 17, the Al Hadath TV channel reported that Israeli airstrikes on the central part of Gaza City had hit a hospital. According to the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health, the attack on the al-Ahli hospital killed 471 people and wounded 342. The Palestinian side held the Israeli air force responsible while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility, saying that the explosion at the hospital had resulted from a misfired rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad group.

Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon declared a three-day mourning period for the victims. A four-party summit in Amman, which had been expected to bring together President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, President Joe Biden of the United States, President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine and King Abdullah II of Jordan, was canceled after news of the attack broke.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.

According to the latest official data, more than 3,400 Palestinians have been killed since the renewed outbreak of violence, while over 12,000 others have sustained wounds. In Israel, up to 1,500 people have lost their lives and almost 4,200 have been wounded in clashes.

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