Hundreds killed in strike on Gaza hospital as Israeli-Hamas war worsens

Geoff Bennett:

It's a horrific night in Gaza, where an airstrike hit a hospital, killing hundreds. Who hit the hospital is in dispute.

Amna Nawaz:

Palestinians and others said it was an Israeli bombing. The Israel Defense Forces say it was an errant missile fired by the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Geoff Bennett:

The fallout has been swift. Condemnations of Israel have poured in from Turkey, Jordan, many Gulf countries and beyond.

And a scheduled meeting among President Biden, Jordanian, Egyptian and Palestinian leaders in Jordan has been canceled. But President Biden still left this afternoon for a visit to Israel tomorrow.

Amna Nawaz:

From Israel now, Leila Molana-Allen again begins our coverage.

Leila Molana-Allen:

In the dark of the night, chaos. Paramedics carry the dead after an explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, packed with thousands of wounded Gazans seeking refuge, their sanctuary engulfed in flames.

Gaza's Health Ministry said there were hundreds killed and wounded.

Dr. Fadel Naim, The Islamic University of Gaza: Around 7:00 in the evening, we were still working in the hospital in the O.R. And, suddenly, we hear a very big, huge explosion. The false ceiling fall on our heads. And they came in the O.R., said there's an explosion in the hospital.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Dr. Fadel Naim was in the hospital's operating room at the time of the massacre. We spoke to him by phone.

Dr. Fadel Naim:

As I went outside, I saw a massacre, everywhere, dead bodies, and people were cut in pieces. They are people who are looking for safety and came to the hospital because it's a safe place. It's a massacre. It's a big massacre.

All people are afraid from being bombed again, and have many little girls with the nurses and our technicians. They are afraid. They are crying.

Leila Molana-Allen:

After the explosion, protests erupted in the Middle East. And in the West Bank, Palestinians flooded the streets, calling for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be ousted and condemning the attack.

The Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where the wounded were rushed, is already overwhelmed. And it had already become a hub for thousands of displaced Palestinians, seeking not just healing, but shelter.

Nariman Jamal Al Kombarji left her house after her street was bombed. Her daughter has special needs.

Nariman Jamal Al Kombarji, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

We ran away. Bombs and rockets are everywhere there. What is happening is not acceptable. These are children that we are talking about, children with fear built up in their hearts. How do these children deserve this?

Leila Molana-Allen:

Another Israeli airstrike today hit the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Residents rushed the wounded into ambulances to try and save them.

For the survivors, only wails of sorrow. But Israel said the strike targeted a Hamas command center and killed Ayman Nofal, so far the most high-profile militants known to have been successfully targeted.

At a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today, Prime Minister Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing multilayered war crimes.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:

Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery. It's hiding behind civilians, their own civilians.

Leila Molana-Allen:

And as civilians try to evacuate, it seems there's no safe zone for Palestinians amidst Israeli bombardment. This residential building was also destroyed today in the southern city of Khan Yunis, an area in the evacuation zone.

Attah Wahdan, Displaced From Northern Gaza (through interpreter):

We were told that the south is safer. They displaced us from our homes, so we came to Khan Yunis, as we have children, and it is safer. But we found that death follows wherever we go.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Across the border, as Israel braces for war, authorities are doing what they can to evacuate the towns and cities that lie in range of fire along the border with Gaza.

It's just a few days since we were last here in Sderot, but the difference is clear. People were afraid then. They were thinking about leaving. Now it's a ghost town, the streets deserted, the pavements covered in shattered masonry and roof tiles, because there have been so many rocket strikes on this town over the last few days.

Sderot has now evacuated more than 80 percent of its residents, but, for some, leaving home in the midst of some of the worst such trauma is a step too far. We met 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Gina last week. Her daughter, unable to reach her since yesterday and frantic with worry, called us, so we went to check on her.

When we last saw Gina, she was stubborn and furious. Now, after days of endless rocket attacks and with all her friends and neighbors gone, she's in despair.

Gina Halfon, Sderot, Israel Resident (through interpreter):

Where is my government? I would hit them back right away. Don't wait. All week, we are waiting for entrance to Gaza. For what? You have decided, so go in. Don't build up the tension. This tension is killing us.

Leila Molana-Allen:

But no matter the urgent calls from her children every five minutes and the rockets raining down overhead, she will not budge from this front porch, where she's sat for 60 years.

Gina Halfon (through interpreter):

Where would I go at this age? And I don't care about myself when you see small children being kidnapped. I told my daughter I will not leave my home, only by death.

Leila Molana-Allen:

As we leave, Gina sits alone once more, watching and waiting for what's to come.

Others here want to go, but have no idea where. When Hamas fighters invaded her town just over a week ago, single mother Sima Yekhshekel snatched up her three young kids and ran for her life. She's been putting herself up in a hotel just outside Tel Aviv since then, but can't afford it anymore.

She returned home on Saturday to a fridge full of rotting food, no electricity, and a home in chaos.

Sima Yekhshekel, Sderot, Israel Resident (through interpreter):

No one in Sderot helped me. They give money for Sderot. It's not come to me. They give me this. Who cares? I don't need this. Look, they send me this. I don't need this. Come see what happened.

Leila Molana-Allen:

While she was away, her neighbor's house was hit by a rocket, sending huge shards of shrapnel ripping through her doors and ceiling.

Sima has been offered refuge in an evacuation hotel in the mixed neighborhood of East Jerusalem, but says that's not an option for her.

Sima Yekhshekel:

They say only Jerusalem. There are a lot of Arabs with me. I'm alone with three children. It's very difficult for me.

Leila Molana-Allen:

So what are you going to do?

Sima Yekhshekel:

Stay here. Maybe I will live. Maybe I will die.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Many across the country, including Israelis who once expounded negotiation and supported the rights of Palestinian civilians, now feel the same: It's us or them.

We have just had a massive alert go off for rockets coming overhead here on the highway as troops assemble for the war. Just a mile from the border, these war staging areas are in clear sight of Hamas' rockets, as are the civilian towns and villages along the Gaza border.

With hundreds of incoming rockets every day, the death toll would be much higher but for Israel's savior, the Iron Dome system. The state-of-the-art defense system detects and intercepts incoming rockets in real time, but overwhelmed by an assault on this scale, some slip through the net.

The IDF says the past week marks the most intense missile assault from Gaza. They have seen. In the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas launched 5,000 rockets in 50 days. This time, they have already launched 6,000 in just over a week.

Maj. Libby Weiss, Israeli Defense Forces:

And so we're seeing many, many more rockets and far more advanced rockets that Hamas is launching to Israeli communities.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Civilians on both sides of the border here are praying for peace, but preparing themselves for an even bloodier war.

For the "PBS NewsHour," Leila Molana-Allen on the Israel-Gaza border.