Israel Defence Force spokesperson has denied allegations by Hamas that IDF was responsible for Tuesday explosion that reportedly killed hundreds of people at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. At a news conference on Wednesday, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari categorically denied allegations by Hamas.
IDF had earlier on Tuesday announced that it had reviewed available data and come to conclusion that the blast was the result of an Islamic Jihad rocket which was aimed at Israel but misfired and fell to the ground in Gaza City.
He revealed that there was no evidence of a direct hit on the hospital building itself, no structural damage to nearby buildings and no bomb crater, which would have been consistent with damage from Israel Air Force aerial bombing, Hagari said on Wednesday.
“According to our intelligence, Hamas checked reports and understood it was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfire, then launched a global media campaign with inflated numbers of casualties,” the IDF spokesman said. “They understood with absolute certainty that it was a rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controled by Hamas said that hundreds of people were killed in what it alleged was an Israeli airstrike. Numerous photos from Al-Ahli Hospital showed the hospital halls on fire. It also showed shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area. The ministry said at least 500 people had been killed.
“It is impossible to know what happened as quickly as Hamas claimed they knew,” Hagari said. “That should have been an initial warning sign.” Israel also has audio recordings of telephone conversations between Hamas members in which they implicate Islamic Jihad in the explosion, Hagari added.
IDF international spokesperson Jonathan Continua while speaking to CNN said; “Categorically we do not strike any sensitive facilities, definitely not hospitals. Very much aware of the presence of civilians,”
As the war rages the deaths at the Al-Ahli Hospital have provoked rage in the Arab world, where the allegations against Israel have been widely accepted, and expressions of deep concern among Western leaders.
Hamas on their side rejected the Israeli military spokesman’s statement that a failed rocket launch was the source of the explosion and claimed that “the angle of the impact and the intensity of the fire proves that it was an attack from the air.”
Hamas claimed that “the hospitals in the Gaza Strip received evacuation notices before they were hit by the bombings, but no one in the international community intervened,”.