Anger spreads across Mideast after Israel 'murders' over 500 in Gaza hospital

NT Bureau, Agencies

Tel Aviv/Gaza Strip: Within hours after a blast was said to have killed hundreds at a Gaza hospital, protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank and at riot police in neighbouring Jordan, venting fury at their leaders for failing to stop the carnage.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — friends of the US who normally relish the chance to meet with American presidents — called off a planned Wednesday summit with Joe Biden, who only visited Israel.

“This war, which has entered a dangerous phase, will plunge the region into an unspeakable disaster,” warned Abdullah, who is among the closest Western allies in the Mideast.

Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the hospital killed hundreds of people. Israel said the blast was caused by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants that fell short, and it released aerial photos and other evidence that it says support its claims.

Biden, after arriving in Tel Aviv, said the blast appeared to have been caused “by the other team,” not Israel, but that there were “a lot of people out there” who weren't sure.

There was no doubt among the Arab protesters who gathered in several countries late Tuesday to condemn what they saw as an Israeli atrocity.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has been under lockdown since a bloody Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas militants ignited the war, protesters clashed with Palestinian security forces and called for the overthrow of Abbas.

Israel and the West have long viewed Abbas as a partner in reducing tensions, but his Palestinian Authority is widely seen by Palestinians as a corrupt and autocratic accomplice to Israel's military occupation of the West Bank.

Jordan, long considered a bastion of stability in the region, has seen mass protests in recent days. Late Tuesday, pro-Palestinian protesters tried to storm the Israeli Embassy.

“They are all normalising Arab rulers, none of them are free, the free ones are all dead!" one protester shouted.

"Arab countries are unable to do anything!” Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, in the late 1970s.

Jordan followed in 1994.

'Death to Israel'

Thousands of students rallied at Egyptian universities on Wednesday to condemn Israeli strikes on Gaza. Protesters in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities chanted “Death to Israel” and “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Al-Aqsa,” referring to a contested Jerusalem holy site.

A smaller protest was held near the US Embassy in Cairo. “The Arab street has a voice. That voice may have been ignored in the past by governments in the region and the West … but they cannot do this anymore,” said Badr al-Saif, a history professor at Kuwait University.

“People are on fire.” “No Arab government is able to extend its hand to Israel amid its aggression on the Palestinians,” Ammar Ali Hassan, an Egyptian political scientist, said.

They’ve turned into gangsters: Analyst blasts UN Security Council

Aicha Elbasri from the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies has denounced the five permanent members of the UN Security Council after its failure to “stop the carnage in Gaza”.

“The Security Council has not been able to implement its own resolutions because the five permanent members – instead of being a policeman – unfortunately what we’ve seen over the years they’ve sort of turned into gangsters. This is the reality,” Aicha said.

Gaza hospital bombing was 'extremely serious war crime': UK-based lawyers

"The catastrophic airstrike on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians is an outrage of unspeakable proportions and an extremely serious war crime," according to a UK-based lawyers' group on Palestinian rights.

"It must be the tipping point for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to end its persecutory policy of siege starvation against civilians in Gaza," it added.

"An independent investigation and judicial process is vital to provide justice for the innocent victims, accountability for grave criminal wrongdoing, and deter mass atrocities which characterise this cruel conflict from being repeated," added the lawyers’ group.

Biden urges Israel not to make ‘mistakes’ like US after 9/11

President Biden cautioned Israel on Wednesday not to make t