A reported airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan that allegedly left hundreds dead is drawing growing scrutiny, not only over the strike itself but over what critics describe as a muted international response.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government said more than 400 people were killed and hundreds were wounded after a strike hit the Omid Hospital, a major drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to Reuters. Civilians, including children, also have been killed in escalating cross-border strikes in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported. 

The casualty figures have not been independently verified.

The strike comes amid a rapidly escalating military campaign between Pakistan and Afghanistan that has intensified over the past three weeks.

INDIA STEPS UP DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH THE TALIBAN AS RIVAL PAKISTAN LOSES INFLUENCE IN AFGHANISTAN

Cross-border airstrikes and clashes have expanded across multiple provinces, with Pakistan targeting what it says are bases of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group responsible for attacks inside Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The Taliban government has accused Islamabad of violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

At a United Nations briefing Wednesday, a U.N. spokesperson said the conflict has now entered its third week, with widespread civilian impact. More than 115,000 people have been displaced, more than 300 shelters damaged or destroyed, and at least 25 health facilities closed or disrupted due to the fighting, according to U.N. humanitarian agencies.

Pakistan has denied targeting a hospital, saying the operation struck militant infrastructure.

"Since the beginning of this counterterrorism campaign, Pakistan has sought to defend and protect the people of Pakistan … by targeting terrorists and terrorist infrastructure that are incubated and nurtured by the Afghan Taliban," the prime minister’s spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi told Fox News Digital.

PAKISTAN DECLARES 'OPEN WAR' ON AFGHANISTAN IN RESPONSE TO TALIBAN'S RETALIATORY STRIKES

Zaidi said the strike targeted weapons and ammunition at Camp Phoenix in Kabulm Afghanistan, and insisted, "There are no civilian hospitals in Camp Phoenix," adding that reports of a rehabilitation facility being hit may be due to "secondary explosions" from stored weapons.

The United Nations on Wednesday, two days after the attack, condemned the reported strike, with Secretary-General António Guterres, through a spokesperson, "strongly condemning" an airstrike that "reportedly resulted in the death (and) injury of civilians at a hospital," and calling for an independent investigation.

Still, some analysts say the response does not match the scale of the incident.

"U.N. officials swiftly condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s regime as unlawful ‘aggression’ … Yet Pakistan’s airstrike on Kabul’s Omid Hospital — killing over 400 civilians — has drawn only a belated ‘strong condemnation’ … and standard pleas for ‘de-escalation’," Executive Director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital.

"This restrained response — no personal outrage from Guterres, no emergency session naming Pakistan, and no equivalent chorus from U.N. rapporteurs, or agencies like WHO, U.N. Women, and UNICEF — reveals rank hypocrisy," he said. "When hundreds of vulnerable Afghans die in a hospital, the U.N. offers measured words. Yet when the U.S. or Israel can be blamed — justifiably or not — the condemnation is immediate and overwhelming. When some victims matter far more than others, the U.N. reveals its cynical political agenda. This double standard doesn’t uphold human rights, it erodes them." 

Australian human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky echoed that criticism in a post on X, calling the strike "an absolute massacre," while noting what he described as a lack of global outrage: "World outrage? Zero. Could barely muster p17 in the newspaper here."

Nigeria suicide bombings killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others in Maiduguri, officials said Tuesday, as a Christian nonprofit leader warned the violence highlights ongoing religious persecution.

The Associated Press reported that one of the deadliest attacks on Maiduguri in recent history involved explosions in crowded areas on Monday night, including a major market in the capital of Borno state and the entrance to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

Borno police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement that the wounded "sustained varying degrees of injuries," blaming the attacks on suspected suicide bombers.

President Bola Tinubu, who departed Nigeria on Tuesday for a two-day state visit to the United Kingdom, offered condolences to the victims and instructed security chiefs to "take charge of the situation" in Maiduguri.

AFRICA’S CHRISTIAN CRISIS: HOW 2025’S DEADLY ATTACKS FINALLY DREW GLOBAL ATTENTION AFTER TRUMP’S INTERVENTION

"The Monday attacks were desperate acts of the evil-minded terrorist groups," Tinubu said. "Our gallant military and civilian task forces will curtail and put them down."

While no group has claimed responsibility, the AP reported suspicion has fallen on the Boko Haram jihadi group, which launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 to enforce its radical interpretation of Shariah law.

Since launching its insurgency, Boko Haram has grown stronger, with thousands of fighters and multiple factions, some aligned with the Islamic State group.

NIGERIA’S FIRST LADY SAYS US STRIKES WERE A ‘BLESSING,' WELCOMES COLLABORATION WITH TRUMP

The explosions on Monday night began at about 7:30 p.m. at the entrance of the teaching hospital. A few minutes later, a second and third blast followed at the Monday Market and a nearby post office hub, both about 2.5 miles from the hospital.

Caleb Jonah, who survived the explosion at the hospital entrance, told the AP he suffered injuries to his legs and hands.

"I was coming to the hospital to check (in on) a patient when I saw two men struggling with the security men at the gate," Jonah said. "Before I could process what was going on I heard the deafening blast and I passed out."

CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN SYSTEMATIC KIDNAPPING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA BY JIHADI HERDSMEN, EXPERTS SAY

Brad Brandon, CEO and founder of Across Nigeria, said the attack was personal. His organization is committed to transforming Nigeria and the surrounding regions by sharing the love of God through Jesus Christ, according to the group’s website.

"As the CEO and founder of Across Nigeria, these recent attacks in Maiduguri are personal and a stark reminder that the devastating violence continues in northern Nigeria," he said in a statement. "This is the result of radical Islamic groups that are allowed to operate unchecked. The only question is, how many more must be killed, before the world wakes up to the genocide that slaughters thousands of Christians every year."

"We condemn these violent acts and the perpetrators who commit them," he added. "We also call on the U.S. Government to intervene and the media to embrace their role in bringing light to the hidden things of darkness."

TRUMP LAUNCHES CHRISTMAS NIGHT AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS 'TERRORIST SCUM' IN NIGERIA AFTER KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS

While Maiduguri has been at the center of deadly violence in Nigeria, it has experienced relative peace in recent years, even as extremists batter the countryside.

Monday’s attack took place less than 24 hours after the Nigerian military repelled attacks by militants outside Maiduguri.

By Tuesday morning, heavy security had been deployed to the affected locations and along major roads.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hezbollah and Iran launched a coordinated strike strategy Tuesday, a national security expert claimed, as reports emerged that deadly cluster munitions were hitting Israel in synchronized attacks.

The developments unfolded on day 11 of Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign targeting Iran, marking a potential escalation in the widening regional conflict.

"Hezbollah has fully joined the war, and it looks like they are now very well coordinated with Iran," Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital while speaking from his bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.

"Most of Hezbollah's rockets and drones are launched simultaneously with the Iranian missiles," he said.

IRAN'S SENIOR CLERICS ‘EXPOSED’ AFTER BUILDING STRIKE IN QOM, SUCCESSION CHOICE LOOMS

Israel confirmed Tuesday that Iran had been firing cluster munitions — adding a complicated and deadly challenge to Israel’s stretched air defenses, The Associated Press reported.

The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The smaller bombs, which at night can resemble orange fireballs, are difficult to intercept and have proven lethal.

Fox News correspondent Nate Foy also said despite Israel's strong air defense, half of the missiles are hard to defend against because half of the missiles are cluster munitions.

"The Iranian use of cluster missiles and the idea that they deliberately target civilians and civil facilities must be considered as a use of non-conventional weapons, and the American-Israeli response must be appropriate," Michael urged.

Banned by more than 120 nations under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, the weapons are widely condemned for their broad-area, indiscriminate effects that often result in catastrophic civilian harm.

IRAN PROXIES WAGE WAR ON ISRAEL, THREATEN US INTERESTS AS IRAQ SLAMMED FOR NOT DISARMING THEM

Michael spoke as Reuters reported Hezbollah was applying lessons from its last war with Israel as it prepares for a possible full-scale Israeli invasion and protracted conflict. 

It said sources claimed the group was returning to its roots in guerrilla warfare in south Lebanon.

"Operating in small units, fighters from the Iran-backed group are avoiding the use of communication devices that could be at risk of Israeli tapping and are rationing the use of key anti-tank rockets as they engage Israeli troops," said the sources, familiar with Hezbollah military activities.

Michael also said that the "north of the country, toward the Haifa area, is under heavy bombing."

IRAN’S ‘STUNNING STRATEGIC MISCALCULATION’ COULD ACCELERATE GULF TIES TO ISRAEL, EX-CENTCOM DIRECTOR PREDICTS

"Israeli citizens have to spend most of the time in the shelter rooms as Hezbollah and Iran deliberately target civilians and civilian facilities," he said.

"Tel Aviv is still under an emergency routine, with sirens continuing and many people spending a lot of time in the bomb shelter rooms," he added before highlighting that "Israel is a small country and will not be able to continue containing such asymmetry and this type of attrition war."

As of Tuesday night local time, the IDF said it had launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs. 

This came after the military reiterated its warning to evacuate the area, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.

HEGSETH BLASTS BRITS, SAYS IRAN'S CHAOTIC RETALIATION HAS DRIVEN ITS OWN ALLIES 'INTO THE AMERICAN ORBIT'

In a post shared on X, the IDF said: "This is what we’re operating against."

Reuters sources also claimed much of Hezbollah's fighting on the ground had been focused so far near the town of Khiyam, near the intersection of Lebanon's border with Israel and Syria.

This is one area where Hezbollah believes any Israeli land invasion could begin. Hezbollah's elite Radwan fighters, who withdrew from the south following the 2024 ceasefire, had also returned to the area, it said.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN IS 'RUNNING OUT OF LAUNCHERS' AS REGIME IS 'BEING DECIMATED'

"Israel will no doubt take control over a wide territory in south Lebanon, from the international border to the Litani River, in order to establish a security buffer zone," Michael said.

"This will prevent Hezbollah from attacking the Israeli villages and towns in the north of the country and will intensify the attacks against Hezbollah all over Lebanon," Michael added.

"We hope that President Trump will not stop or use the formula he used with the Houthis, declaring victory and leaving the wounded lion incapable of revenge and/or reconstituting itself."

Meanwhile, an Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel were now cluster bombs, The Associated Press said.