Photo of al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza following the missile strike, October 17, 2023

On Tuesday, October 17, the unprecedented, relentless and indiscriminate bombing campaign of Israel in Gaza reached a new low, with a missile strike on the al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza, in which at least 500 people were killed, including many children, with many victims still buried under the rubble. In a statement, the World Health Organization stated that the hospital was operational and full of patients, health care workers and caregivers, as well as many internally displaced people sheltering there.

In the wake of the massive destruction wrought by Israel in northern Gaza, more than a million people have been displaced, with hundreds of thousands taking refuge in hospitals, school and UN facilities and UN facilities. With Israel’s visceral hatred directed at the Palestinian people and resistance to the Israeli occupation and its innumerable crimes, it was only a matter of time before such a massacre took place.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have tried to shift the blame for the missile strike on the al-Ahli Hospital to the resistance, claiming it was due to a misfired rocket. However, even if this were true, the full responsibility for the massacre lies with Israel and its genocidal siege and the inhuman brutality that the occupiers are carrying out in Gaza, in which health care facilities and all those sheltering within and those too sick to evacuate, have been regularly targeted by the IDF, in violation of the First Geneva Convention.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends it deepest condolences to the people of Gaza and the Palestinian people in their historic homeland, as well as all those displaced to countries around the world. CPC(M-L) condemns the Zionists and their occupation of Palestine that carries on in defiance of the rule of international law, aided and abetted by the U.S. imperialists and its appeasers like Canada. CPC(M-L) reiterates its support for the Palestinian people and their just and steadfast resistance to the occupation, and calls on Canadians and Quebeckers to redouble their efforts to support this just cause and demand that the Canadian government end its support of Zionism and uphold the rights of the Palestinian people.

During a virtual press conference held later that day, senior officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) underlined WHO’s condemnation over the strike on the hospital. They informed that there have been over 115 attacks on health care facilities across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 7. Of this number, 51 occurred in the Gaza Strip, with 15 health care workers killed and 27 injured, said Hyo-Jeong Kim, Lead of WHO’s Attacks on Health Care Initiative. The remaining incidents took place in the West Bank.

Across Canada and around the world, emergency actions were held to immediately denounce Israel for the attack on the al-Shifa Hospital. In Ottawa, the sidewalk outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was occupied by protestors, first by those demonstrating to hold the Trudeau Liberal government and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to account for their interference in Haiti, which then was followed immediately by a demonstration for Palestine. Over the course several hours, some 2,000 people gathered in downtown Ottawa to denounce Israel and Canada’s support for the Zionists. From the PMO, the protestors marched to the Israeli Embassy and then to a conference against anti-Semitism where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet all spoke.

Large emergency rallies also took place in Montreal and Toronto, with hundreds participating.

Meanwhile, on October 18, U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel, seeking to defend and put a human face on Israeli state terrorism against the people of Gaza and its criminal occupation of Palestine. While Biden received a war welcome in Israel, several Arab heads of state cancelled a planned meetings with Biden in the wake of the attack on the al-Shifa hospital.

Also on October 18, at the UN Security Council, the U.S. vetoed a draft resolution calling for a humanitarian pause by Israel and the Palestinian resistance, with U.S. Ambassador Linda Greenfield-Thomas saying that the U.S. exercised its veto because the resolution did not recognize Israel’s right to self-defence.

Protests Across Canada

International Protests

(With files on UN News Centre.)