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The Israeli military says it had no involvement in an explosion that killed hundreds of people at a Gaza City hospital and that the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says an Israeli airstrike caused the blast, which killed some 500 people, many of whom had sought shelter from an ongoing Israeli offensive.

The Israeli military, however, said Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital.

“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch,” it said.

Islamic Jihad is a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often cooperates with Hamas in their shared struggle against Israel. (AP)

A chaotic scene unfolded at Al Shifa hospital Tuesday night as Palestinians injured in a blast at another hospital in Gaza City arrived for treatment.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 500 people at al-Ahli Hospital. Israeli authorities denied involvement, saying the explosion was caused by a militant rocket.

Photos purportedly taken at al-Ahli Hospital shared widely on social media showed fire engulfing the building, with bodies scattered among the wreckage. Those photos could not be independently verified.

Footage captured by The Associated Press showed ambulances and private cars converging on Al Shifa hospital, where medics and others rushed the injured inside on stretchers and a wheelchair.

One person had a bloody stump where their left leg was missing. Four men carried a body bag to a civil defense vehicle.

Inside Al Shifa, the wounded were laid out on bloody floors, screaming in pain, as shouting people surrounded them. Some of the injured were not moving. Workers in scrubs ran outside and sirens wailed as more Red Crescent ambulances arrived. (AP)

A senior Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas has cancelled his participation in a meeting scheduled Wednesday with President Joe Biden and other Mideast leaders.

Abbas was scheduled to join Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at Wednesday's summit in Amman, Jordan, where they are to discuss the Israel-Hamas war with Biden.

But the senior official said Abbas was withdrawing to protest an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that health officials say has killed over 500 people.

“The president is very angry after the news of the Israeli massacre at the hospital in Gaza, and he decided to immediately return to Ramallah,” the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the cancelation has not been formally announced. (AP)

Palestinians desperate for water lined up to fill bottles and large jugs Tuesday at a desalination plant in Gaza.

Children and men took turns using a hose in Nusairat to fill containers that they hauled away using bicycles, a wheelchair and a cart pulled by a donkey.

Ismael Al-Hafi said people are rationing the water they can find and wait two or three days to clean themselves.

“Gaza is in complete collapse,” Al-Hafi said. “There is no solar to operate the desalination plants. This means that you have to struggle to fill two gallons of water. This is suffering.” (AP)

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip says at least 500 people have been killed in an explosion that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City Hospital.

If confirmed, it would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

Israel’s military later denied responsibility, saying the militant group Islamic Jihad was to blame.

Hamas authorities said most of the people killed were hospital patients and displaced families.

“A new war crime committed by the (Israeli) occupation by bombing the Al-Ahli Hospital in the centre of Gaza City,” said Salama Marouf, a spokesperson for Hamas.” The hospital was housing hundreds of patients, wounded, and those forcibly displaced from their homes due to the strikes.” (AP)

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