A Palestinian girl carrying a blanket as she walks past the site of a deadly explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. – AP Photo
ANKARA: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned an attack by Israel on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza, denouncing it as an act of "organised state terrorism" and a "war crime".
In a written statement late Tuesday (Oct 17), the OIC said it "strongly condemns the brutal Israeli massacre in the Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip and considers it organised state terrorism and a war crime," Anadolu Agency reported.
It underlined that the 57-member bloc of Muslim nations held the "Israeli occupation accountable for the consequences of its crimes, terrorist practices and brutal attacks against the Palestinian people, which contradict all human values and constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law."
Emphasising the need for accountability and punishment for such acts of "organised state terrorism", the OIC called on the international community, and especially the UN Security Council, to "urgently intervene to stop the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and provide international protection for the Palestinian people."
More than 500 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu.
According to an Anadolu reporter on the ground, thousands of Palestinians were at the hospital when the building came under bombardment. – Bernama/Anadolu Agency
