Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday night said it was not behind a blast in the area of a hospital in the Gaza Strip that according to Hamas health authorities led to hundreds of deaths, and that instead a misfired rocket launched by Gaza terrorists caused the explosion.



The blast was initially claimed to have occurred at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital itself, but footage from Wednesday morning showed it appeared to have happened at the hospital’s parking lot, with none of the surrounding buildings sustaining significant damage.

Palestinians and much of the Arab world blamed Israel, saying it had struck the medical facility and that hundreds had been killed. Jerusalem was swiftly condemned by Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza initially said at least 500 people were killed, AP reported, a figure that was later amended to between 200 and 300, as reported by AFP.

Terror group Hamas called the blast “a war crime,” and the World Health Organization also issued a rebuke.



In a brief video circulated in English Tuesday night, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, “An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”

“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our possession indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital in Gaza,” he added. This was before the footage emerged showing the blast happened at the parking lot and not at the hospital itself.

The Israeli military said about 450 of the thousands of rockets fired routinely by Gaza-based terror organizations at Israel have fallen short inside Gaza since the beginning of the war on October 7, “endangering and harming the lives of Gazan residents.”

Several videos appear to show the moment the rocket fell short and exploded inside the Palestinian territory on Tuesday. www.timesofisrael.com/israel-says-islamic-jihad-rocket-misfire-caused-gaza-hospital-blast/

There’s no confirmation that “hundreds” of civilians died. If it was an Islamic Jihad rocket, it wouldn’t have done much damage or killed a lot of people — just as the first photo above appears to show. The Hamas/Islamic Jihad rockets, known as one of a variation of Grad rockets, are extremely unsophisticated and not very powerful.

On the other hand, if it had been an American-made JDAM precision-guided bomb, the blast would have been unmistakable — a deep crater with soil thrown up all around it.

The problem is a familiar one when dealing with propaganda. The narrative of “500 civilians killed after Israel bombed a hospital” is now set in stone, and trying to prove otherwise — especially when actual physical evidence is lacking — will be a huge challenge.

Exaggerating casualties is the only way Hamas will be able to regain the world’s sympathy after what happened on Oct. 7. The fact that the atrocities committed by Hamas are rapidly falling down the memory hole isn’t surprising.