Gaza hospital strike, Hormuz tanker fires deepen regional tensions

TEHRAN, Nov 12: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that two tankers carrying more than four million barrels of oil caught fire following an "accident" along an unauthorised route in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people and wounded around 20, according to a civil defence official.

Since the outbreak of the Middle East war in late February, Tehran has heavily restricted traffic through the strategic shipping channel, insisting vessels use routes it has approved.

The United States has in response imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers travel the strait, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil.

They did not specify the nature of the "accident" but said it left the two tankers immobilised after they were hit with a "violent explosion".

"These two supertankers were carrying a combined total of over four million barrels of oil, which are now ablaze -- a consequence of the blind trust placed in the aggressive American military," the statement said.

Tehran has often said they struck mines, but the US military recently claimed all mines had been cleared from the strait.

AFP adds, an Israeli strike killed six people and wounded around 20 at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, a civil defence official told AFP on Thursday.

The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it targeted "a senior Hamas terrorist and additional terrorists from Hamas's military wing" operating from the hospital.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the bodies of those killed and more than 20 people wounded in the strike had been recovered from a building at the medical complex.

"The death toll from the Israeli strike inside Nasser Medical Complex, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has risen to six," civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

Nasser Hospital confirmed the six deaths in a statement.

The Israeli military said it carried out an "aerial strike to eliminate the threat they posed, after the Hamas terrorist organisation had established a presence within the hospital complex and used it as a command centre". �"AFP