"Poland is outraged by the unacceptable toll of innocent civilian lives taken by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict," the Polish Foreign Ministry said on X on Wednesday (Oct. 18). The MFA also called upon "all sides to act to deescalate the conflict".
About 500 Palestinians were killed in a blast at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other and that ignited protests in the West Bank and around the Middle East.
"Poland is outraged by the unacceptable toll of innocent civilian lives taken by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The shocking news of the atrocity at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza adds to this horror," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X.
"We stress in the strongest possible terms that civilians must be protected in accordance with international and humanitarian law," the MFA added.
The Polish ministry also called upon "all sides to act to deescalate the conflict".
Both sides blame each other
The Palestinian Authority's health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of "a massacre" at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital. The strike killed hundreds of people and occurred during Israel's intense 11-day bombing campaign in Gaza.
Earlier a Gaza civil defence chief said 300 people were killed and a health ministry official said 500 were killed. Hamas said the blast mostly killed displaced people.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said analysis by its operational system showed "an enemy rocket barrage" aimed at Israel was passing the hospital at the time of the strike and blamed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "barbaric terrorists" in Gaza had attacked the Gaza hospital, not Israel's military.
The World Health Organisation said the attack on the hospital was "unprecedented in its scale". It said earlier on Tuesday there had been 115 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the majority of its hospitals were not functioning.
Biden visits Middle East
U.S. President Joe Biden left Washington Tuesday evening on a whirlwind trip that was originally expected to touch down in Israel for an update on Israel's war aims in its battle with Hamas militants, and then Jordan, to stress the need to get humanitarian assistance to Gaza civilians.
The strike on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians saw Arab leaders call off their planned summit with Biden in Jordan however, and that leg of the trip cancelled.
Biden's second trip to a war zone this year - he visited Ukraine in February - carries some risk. His goal was originally to show American solidarity with Netanyahu while trying to avoid a broader regional war involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Syria.
How he accomplishes that balance while meeting only Netanyahu and Israeli officials is unclear.
The United States has stationed a carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean in a show of force for Israel and a second is on the way.
Biden also wants to avert a humanitarian calamity in Gaza where authorities say thousands have already been killed in Israeli bombardment over the last week.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, PAP