The Ministry of Health of Gaza, a Palestinian territory governed by the Islamist movement Hamas, denounced Tuesday that an Israeli bombardment killed at least 200 people in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. According to the Gazan news agency Sanad, citing official sources, the number of dead could exceed 500, while Gaza strongly condemned the attack.

“The hospital housed hundreds of sick and wounded, as well as people forcibly displaced” by Israeli bombardment, the statement said, denouncing it as a “war crime”.

Minutes later, the Israeli army blamed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization for the failed launch of a rocket that hit the hospital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, blamed the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza.” “Let the whole world know: the barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital in Gaza, not the army,” the prime minister said in a statement.

However, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) pointed the finger at Israel for the bombing, stating that it amounts to a crime against humanity and that it must answer for it at international courts. It also declared three days of national mourning.