An Israeli attack on an ambulance outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza has killed 15 people, officials said as Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for a temporary halt to his country’s attacks on Gaza unless hostages held by Hamas militants are freed.
“Upon their arrival to al-Shifa, (Israel) directly targeted the convoy’s second vehicle, committing a terrible massacre that claimed the lives of 15 (people) and wounded more than 60,” health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said. While Israel claims it was targeting Hamas in the attack on hospital vicinity, the dead and wounded include dozens of children who were left in a pool of blood.
The Israeli PM snubbed calls for a temporary ceasefire despite pleas by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to do so to allow aid to enter the Palestinian enclave.
He told Mr Blinken: “We are going full steam ahead.”
This comes as the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned the US that preventing a regional conflict depended on stopping the Israeli bombardments of Gaza, and raised the spectre of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a full-fledged war.