Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in a massive explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, in the biggest single loss of life in the blockaded territory in all the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007. The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people were killed on Tuesday night in what it claimed was an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi, also known as the Baptist hospital. A spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence put the number of killed at about 300. The Israeli military reportedly said an initial investigation suggested the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch, before saying it was the result of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket barrage. Islamic Jihad denied the Israeli allegation, and the scale of the blast appeared to be outside the militant groups’ capabilities. Reports said violence had erupted between protesters and Palestinian security forces in several cities in the West Bank. In central Ramallah, teargas and stun grenades were fired to disperse protesters throwing rocks and chanting against the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. Reuters reported anger was boiling over after the deadly attack on a Gaza hospital on Tuesday that the authority said was a “cold-blooded massacre” by Israel. Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK will work with allies to “find out what has happened” at the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza. Cleverly, posting to social media, described the destruction of the hospital as “a devastating loss of human life” and that the UK has been “clear” that the “protection of civilian life must come first”. The White House announced that Joe Biden would no longer travel to Jordan. The decision came after Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said that Jordan was no longer holding a planned summit with the US president and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders that was scheduled to take place in Amman on Wednesday. Safadi, speaking to al-Jazeera, said the summit was cancelled because “there is no use in talking now about anything except stopping the war”. Joe Biden is expected to hold talks with Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Israel on Wednesday, on a whirlwind tour of diplomacy that will take in meetings with other officials in Tel Aviv. The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is set to visit Israel, possibly as soon as Thursday, according to Sky News. Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office said it has successfully brought back more than 900 people from Israel. Earlier on Tuesday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said an Israeli airstrike had killed at least six people after hitting one of its schools that has been functioning as a shelter for displaced people. Several hospitals in Gaza have become refuges for hundreds of people hoping to be spared bombardment. Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment since 7 October. At least 940 children and 1,032 women have been killed, the Hamas government media office said. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared three days of mourning after the deadly blast at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital. Hamas’ attack on 7 October in southern Israel killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and saw some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel. Fears are growing that people in Gaza are beginning to dehydrate to death as clean water runs out, with Israeli airstrikes continuing to pound the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million residents amid a total blockade on food, electricity, medicine and fuel. Germany’s duty is to “stand up for the existence of the state of Israel”, chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a joint press conference with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Berlin is “doing all it can to ensure that this conflict does not escalate” across the region, he added. The UN’s culture body, Unesco, warned that the Hamas attack on Israel has led to intense fighting that has resulted in the “deadliest week for journalists in any recent conflict”. Nine journalists have been confirmed killed in the line of duty since 7 October and “the death toll could rise further still”, the agency said. The head of Israeli military intelligence said he bears responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to Hamas carrying out its surprise onslaught on 7 October. Maj Gen Aharon Haliva is the latest Israeli defence official to publicly state that they take responsibility for the Hamas attack, after the head of the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff made similar remarks in recent days. A British teenager is missing and feared kidnapped after Hamas targeted Israeli kibbutzim, relatives have confirmed. Yahel Sharabi, 13, was originally believed missing and possibly taken hostage after the raid on the Be’eri kibbutz two miles from the Gazan border in which her Bristol-born mother, Lianne, was killed. Her sister Noiya, 16, who is a British citizen like Yahel, and their Israeli father, Eli, are still missing. The UN’s human rights office said Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians. Hamas said a senior commander and member of its higher military council, Ayman Nofal, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli air force also said he had been killed, stating: “He directed many terrorist attacks against Israel and the security forces, and he directed the targets of Hamas’s rocket fire, specifically targeting areas populated by uninvolved civilians.”