JERUSALEM—Israel's military published on Wednesday evidence that a misfired Palestinian rocket, rather than one of its own munitions, caused an overnight explosion at a Gaza hospital in which hundreds of people died.
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that controls Gaza, has blamed the blast on Israel. Israel says it was a result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the enclave.
President Joe Biden in Israel on Wednesday, speaking alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the blast "appears as though it was done by the other team, not you." An Israeli news outlet reported that the United States believes Israel's explanation, citing U.S. and Israeli sources.
In an English-language briefing televised shortly before Biden landed in Israel for a solidarity visit, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation had "confirmed that there was no [Israel Defense Forces] fire from the land, sea, or air that hit the hospital."
IDF spokesperson shares aerial pictures showing evidence damage was caused by a rocket misfire and not an IDF airstrike, and reveals a phone call exposing Hamas knew immediately that the hospital was hit by a PIJ rocket and chose to launch a media campaign against Israel pic.twitter.com/OMyxdG9tYu
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 18, 2023
He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.
Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire. "Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead," he said.
Hagari also accused Hamas of inflating the number of casualties from the explosion and said it could not know as quickly as it claimed what had caused the blast.
The reported death toll from the hospital explosion would represent the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence, though some have questioned whether Hamas's account of the death toll is accurate. The blast triggered protests in the West Bank and in the wider region, including in Jordan and Turkey.
Full footage from TASS, no impact craters, interior spaces appear to be intact. Injuries from flying glass appear to have occurred. pic.twitter.com/XCP8mG5YGx
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 18, 2023
Hagari said some 450 rockets fired from Gaza had fallen short and landed inside the Strip within the last 11 days.
"We have intelligence about communication between terrorists talking about rockets misfiring," Hagari said.
The Israeli military then published what it said was an audio recording of such a conversation, with English captions.
Islamic Jihad struck a Hospital in Gaza—the IDF did not.
Listen to the terrorists as they realize this themselves: pic.twitter.com/u7WyU8Rxwz
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 18, 2023
The military also called out media outlets for jumping to conclusions in their reporting of the blast.
Media outlets around the globe were quick to run Hamas’ headlines—without fact checking.
We now know that an Islamic Jihad rocket aimed at Israel misfired and hit the hospital in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/DzJgsbxS4i
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 17, 2023
Israel's Channel 12 news station on Wednesday published its own video that it called "proof of Israel's claims." The channel says the video shows rockets fired from within Gaza in the direction of the hospital at the time of the blast.
https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1714593881801601043
Israeli government officials, including Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, also declared that evidence showed the blast was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launch.
Before Tuesday's blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel's 11-day bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,300 people were killed and around 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages.
The fighting has raised fears of a widening war in the Middle East. The United States has sent aircraft carriers to support Israel, while allies of Hamas including Iran and Tehran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have vowed to respond to a planned Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Flare-ups on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 have been the deadliest in 17 years, killing several Hezbollah fighters, three civilians in Lebanon, and at least three Israeli soldiers.
(Reporting by Dan Williams, writing by John Davison, editing by Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones)