As the Israel-Hamas war continues to escalate, a doctor based in Gaza revealed a horrifying ordeal of the time when he was working in the operation theatre and the entire ceiling of the operation theatre fell on them after the hospital was hit by a deadly explosion on Tuesday night. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon from London, said that parts of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City were on fire.

“I was in the operating room when the missile struck and the full ceiling of the operating cell fell on us. There were amputated parts. There were people with primary amputations,” he told the BBC.

He added, “40% of all the cases that I’ve seen have been children. A lot of them have been like this, they have lost one or two parents. And unfortunately, these kids have a long, long recovery road in front of them.”

Describing the scene as a “massacre”, he stated, “There’s broken glass everywhere, there are lots of people who are seeking refuge in the hospital.”

The surgeon further informed that water pressure was currently too low to power some of the equipment and that resources were running out quickly.

A strike on the Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 500 people, on Tuesday, has sparked outrage around the globe. While the Palestine group Hamas has blamed Israel for the deadly strike, the Israeli Army said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, an ally of the Hamas group. Following the hospital bombing, US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel that day, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” Biden said in a statement.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed the hospital strike as “unprecedented in its scale”, adding that 115 healthcare facilities in Gaza have been attacked, leaving most of the city’s hospitals out of operation.

New Delhi:

Canada’s National Department of Defence said on Saturday that Israel was not behind the Al-Ahli hospital strike in Gaza on October 17.

“Analysis conducted independently by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command indicates with a high degree of confidence that Israel did not strike the Al-Ahli hospital on 17 October 2023,” it said in a statement.

The strike was more likely caused by an errant rocket fired from Gaza, the Defence department said based on analysis of open source and classified reporting.

Canada’s findings are similar to conclusions by France and the US.

Canada said its assessment is informed by an analysis of the blast damage to the hospital complex, including adjacent buildings and the area surrounding the hospital, as well as the flight pattern of the incoming munition.

Palestinian officials said 471 people were killed in the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital on Tuesday. Gaza’s health ministry blamed an Israeli air strike, while Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by militants.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People hold up signs during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza near the Capitol in Washington on on October 18, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Egypt to open Gaza border to allow in 20 trucks with aid

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Egypt’s president has agreed to open a border crossing into Gaza to allow in 20 trucks with humanitarian aid.

Mr. Biden said he spoke with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after his visit to Israel, where leaders there agreed to allow the aid in.

Biden to address U.S. on Israel-Hamas war, Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden will give a primetime speech on Thursday about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday.

Supreme Court to hear pleas on the arrest of NewsClick founders

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PM Modi expresses outrage at hospital bombing in Gaza Strip

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed outrage at the hospital bombing in the Gaza Strip and said the death of non-combatants in the latest round of the Israel-Palestine conflict is a matter of concern. In a social media message that was posted hours after an alleged Israeli bombing of the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza Strip left at least 500 of Palestinians dead, PM Modi called for justice in the case. Several other political notables including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the Congress has condemned the bombing.

Can refer aspects of PMLA verdict to Constitution Bench, if need be: Supreme Court

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Wednesday indicated it may, if required, refer any aspect of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), upheld by a Supreme Court judgment in July 2022, to a Constitution Bench.

A Special Bench of Justices Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M. Trivedi was hearing a series of petitions which have questioned the correctness of the apex court’s judgment on July 27, 2022 in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case.

Raghubar Das appointed Governor of Odisha, Indrasena Reddy Nallu of Tripura

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and BJP leader Indrasena Reddy Nallu have been appointed as the Governors of Odisha and Tripura, respectively, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Oxctober 18.

Centre raises minimum support prices for Rabi crops, farmers unhappy

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has increased the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for all Rabi crops for the finanicial year 2024-25. The increase for wheat, the major Rabi crop, is ₹150 per quintal and the new price will be ₹2,275.

Assam CM attacks Chhattisgarh’s lone Muslim Minister

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday took a controversial dig at Chhattisgarh’s only Muslim Minister, Congress leader Mohammad Akbar, saying “that the land of Mata (Mother) Kaushalya will get defiled if Akbar isn’t sent off”.

In a vitriolic campaign speech in Chhattisgarh’s Kawardha, the Assam Chief Minister repeatedly made references to the name of the incumbent Congress MLA Mr. Akbar. He used the word Akbar as a metaphor for Muslims in the context of a wide range of topics – from the Ayodhya dispute to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, and even the migration problem in his home State of Assam. 

Three defectors from MNF among BJP’s Mizoram candidates

The BJP on October 18 announced the names of 21 candidates for the November 7 elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly. The list, released in two installments, names three leaders who quit the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), including former Assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo, over the past few months.

Central Election Committee of Congress discusses candidates for Rajasthan polls

The Congress top brass on October 18 discussed potential candidates for the coming Rajasthan Assembly polls as the party is all set to announce its first list within the auspicious period of Navaratri.

But the Rajasthan list is likely to be made only after October 21 as another round of meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) is scheduled to take place on Saturday. The CEC also discussed names for 86 seats in Madhya Pradesh, a State where the party has already named candidates for 144 constituencies.

India will explore building large language models: Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Sood

India will set up a “high powered committee” to explore the development of large language models or LLMs, tools that harness artificial intelligence to create applications that can understand and process human language, the Union government’s Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Sood said on Wednesday.

India likely to sign deal with U.S. for 31 MQ-9B drones by February 2024

The deal for 31 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with the U.S. is expected to be concluded by February 2024 and deliveries will begin from February 2027, three years from the signing of the contract, according to defence sources.

Ram temple trust gets FCRA licence to receive foreign donations

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Cricket World Cup 2023 | New Zealand has Afghanistan crashing down to the earth

Afghanistan, flying high after the win over England, was brought down to the ground by a clinical performance from New Zealand which handed the former a 149-run defeat at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

The White House said Wednesday that a current intelligence assessment shows Israel was “not responsible” for the explosion at a Gaza hospital, but that information was still being collected.

The assessment is “based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Wednesday in a social media post, following President Joe Biden’s comment to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”

There have been conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.

The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.

Mr. Biden said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East. He later said he made the assertion based off “data from my Defense Department.”

Tel Aviv:

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that an “errant rocket” fired by a “terrorist group” caused a devastating explosion at a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead.

“Based on the information we’ve seen to date, it appears as a result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” Joe Biden told reporters at the end of a short trip to show solidarity with Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An injured person is assisted at Shifa Hospital after an Israeli air strike hit the nearby Al-Ahli Hospital, according to Gaza Health Ministry in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Khan Younis (Gaza Strip)

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.

Follow Israel-Hamas war, day 11 LIVE updates 

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

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