An airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that Hamas says killed at least 500 people came from the Islamic Jihad terrorist group during a failed launch, Israel 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 Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” the Israel Defense Forces said. “Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.“
Earlier, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed at the hospital. The deaths were the result of an Israeli airstrike, it said.
However, Israel said it was investigating the source of the explosion and said a hospital is not a target for its military forces.
“A hospital is a highly sensitive building and is not an IDF target,” the IDF said earlier.
An additional review and cross-examination of the operational and intelligence systems by the IDF concluded that Israel’s military didn’t fire the rocket, the IDF said.
The Islamic Jihad was responsible for the failed rocket launch, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Tuesday.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a clip on X, formally known as Twitter, of Qatar-based Al Jazeera purportedly showing the Islamic Jihad launch a rocket that misfired and hit the hospital.
“The Palestinians are falsely claiming Israel targeted a hospital in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said. “The thing is, they’re the ones who have a habit of launching missiles at hospitals packed with innocent civilians.”
Israeli Prime Minister pushed back on accusations by Hamas and Palestinian supporters that the IDF targeted the hospital full of wounded people and others seeking shelter.
“The whole world knew: The barbarian terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital in Gaza, not the IDF,” he wrote on X, formally Twitter. “He who brutally murdered our children, also murders his children.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the terrorists in Gaza “are not only responsible for murdering Israeli children – they also murder Palestinian children!”
“You’ve seen Hamas and PIJ beheading children. Stop believing these ISIS-like terrorists,” he wrote on social media. “The only ones shooting indiscriminate missiles at civilians are the Palestinians, who have been doing it for years!”
An image that accompanied the post said terror groups in Gaza purposefully place launching pits and posts within civilian areas and in the line of fire, which makes them vulnerable to misfires.