After the explosion in a hospital in Gaza, Israel’s army presented aerial photos that are supposed to prove that Palestinian militants are to blame. They rejected the representation.
According to Israeli statements, the explosion in a hospital in the Gaza Strip with many deaths was clearly caused by militant Palestinians. Israel’s military released footage intended to prove that a misguided rocket from the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad was responsible for the impact on the Al-Ahli clinic.
Not your typical crater
The aerial photos show the hospital and a parking lot where a fire broke out. The published video compilation compares images before and after the fatal incident. It was said that no typical crater could be seen, as is usually the case during Israeli air strikes.
Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus also told US broadcaster CNN that the military had evidence of a conversation between Hamas terrorists intercepted by Israel. They would have said, “Oh, there was apparently a malfunction or an explosion of a rocket that landed in the Gaza Strip.” In addition, shortly before the incident, a volley of rockets was fired from the central or northern section of the Gaza Strip towards Israel. This was recorded on Israel’s radar system.
Palestinian militants: a “lie”
Israel’s information cannot yet be independently verified, nor can the reports from Gaza. There, the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad rejected the Israelis’ blame. She called the accusation a “lie” that the country uses to “justify its attacks on hospitals” and “evade responsibility for its crime.” Hamas also blamed Israel.
The fact that Israel had apparently taken the aerial photos off the internet again caused confusion. That reports ARD correspondent Hanna Resch. Israel’s army justified this by saying that they were incorrectly dated, said Resch. “That shows how dangerous this is right now. That you have to be careful.” Neither Israel nor Hamas have yet provided any evidence confirming that the rocket attack came from one or the other warring party.
The explosion in the hospital occurred yesterday evening. The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is subordinate to the ruling Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, said that “several hundred” people were killed and injured. An exact number was not given. Many people in the Gaza Strip are currently seeking refuge in the completely overcrowded hospitals in the Gaza Strip from air strikes with which Israel is responding to the major Hamas attack on October 7th. There were also people who had to leave their homes on the hospital grounds that were now hit.
International fright
The images of the destroyed clinic and the suffering of the people caused horror internationally. That evening, several Arab states blamed Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of a “hospital massacre.” Lebanon’s ruling Hezbollah called for a “day of rage” today. In the Jordanian capital Amman, demonstrators tried to storm the Israeli embassy.
Biden and Scholz on a difficult mission
Amid this angry mood, US President Joe Biden is in the region today. There was actually supposed to be a four-party summit in Jordan, but the government in Amman canceled after the clinic was destroyed. Such a meeting will take place “when the decision has been made to end this war and put an end to the massacres,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Abbas were originally scheduled to attend the meeting to discuss the plight of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also in the region. News of the explosion at the hospital in Gaza reached him shortly after his departure from Tel Aviv. He is now in Cairo, where he spoke with President Al-Sisi. Scholz expressed his horror at the images from the hospital in Gaza that was hit by a rocket. “It is important that this incident is clarified very carefully,” wrote Scholz on X, formerly Twitter.