Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto remarked on Wednesday, in response to the shelling of a hospital in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, that the international community "should protect innocent civilians and punish Hamas." The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement (Hamas), which controls the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of carrying out the attack. Israel stated that "the shelling was the result of a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed group in the sector."