Three days of mourning ruled the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, after the deadly airstrike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli-Arabi Baptist Hospital, as reported by state media. According to the Ministry of Health of Palestine at least 500 people have lost their lives, while the initial estimates spoke of 200-300 dead.

“A new war crime committed by the occupation in the bombing of the Al-Ahli-Arabi hospital in the center of Gaza City, resulting in dozens of martyrs and injured people coming to the Al-Shifa Medical Complex due to the bombing. It should be noted that the hospital accommodated hundreds of patients, injured and forcibly displaced from their homes due to the airstrikes.” the Palestinian government in Gaza says in its statement.

Hamas for its part issued a statement regarding the bombing, characterizing it as “genocide”.

“The massacre at Al-Ahli Hospital in the heart of the Gaza Strip is a genocide. Enough silence about the aggression and recklessness of the occupying forces”says in a statement.

“In cold blood” the bombing of the hospital

At the same time, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the hospital bombing as a “cold-blooded massacre”.

The attack on the hospital “it will forever remain a stain on the conscience of humanity that witnesses the horrors being committed against the Palestinian people without taking steps to stop it,” stated in the announcement and continues:

“Every rule of international law is broken down as thousands are mercilessly slaughtered and millions stripped of their humanity, subjected to wanton killings, starvation and forced flight, without end as the Israeli occupation forces continue to pound the Gaza Strip with thousands of rockets and bombs which target civilian areas from the air, land and sea and issue threats of mass murder.”

At the same time, according to what the NBC News a senior official said that Hamas is willing to release all civilian hostages in one hour, if Israel stops bombing Gaza. “If the shelling stopped, we could free the hostages in an hour,” he said. NBC refers to yesterday’s statements by Bassem Naim, head of political and international relations of Hamas, who stated that the release of the hostages could proceed if the Israeli aggression stopped.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said the IDF is “looking into the reported strike,” saying that because it is so recent, the IDF is not yet clear whether the hospital was hit by an IAF strike or a of a failed launch by Hamas.