•Tweet purportedly claiming responsibility by Israeli official circulates online
Israel has released drone footage and an intercepted conversation that the country claims proves that an Islamist militant group was responsible for a deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza and not an Israeli airstrike.
“We are running on it because someone is doing a fake on us, on Israel,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a news conference.
This evidence is yet to be independently verified.
A devastating attack on al Ahli hospital in Gaza claimed hundreds of lives and is being blamed on Israel by Palestinian officials.
The blast is described as the deadliest single event of the Israel-Hamas war so far.
There is an outrage in the international community following the carnage, with many calling for a halt to Israeli aerial bombardments on Gaza.
It would be recalled that Israel went on the offensive against Hamas after terrorists launched a deadly attack on Israel on 7 October.
Countering allegations of genocide, Rear Admiral Hagari said no Israeli aircraft had been operating in the area of the hospital at the time of the explosion and that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was responsible.
The officer shared an image of what he claimed was radar footage captured by the military that showed the passage of a barrage of rockets fired from inside Gaza towards Israel, with the route passing over the site of the hospital.
Hamas claims the blast killed at least 500 people and has more trapped under rubble.
A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said IDF is ‘trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians’
Hundreds of people were reportedly seeking shelter at the hospital at the time of the blast, which Hamas has called a ‘horrific massacre’ and a ‘crime of genocide’.
The carnage came as the US tried to convince Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups, and hospitals in the tiny Gaza Strip, which has been under a complete siege since the deadly rampage by Hamas in southern Israel.
It also came a day before US President Joe Biden was due to visit the region to show support for Israel and try to prevent the war from spreading.
Palestine’s president Mahmoud Abbas is understood to have cancelled the meeting with Biden in protest over the airstrike.
An IDF spokesperson added: ‘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.’
The Islamic Jihad is another Gaza-based terrorist group which has claimed to be fighting Israel alongside Hamas. The group has denied responsibility for the attack.
The Israeli army earlier on Tuesday said that a hospital is a ‘highly sensitive building’ and is ‘not an IDF target’, and urged ‘everyone to proceed with caution when reporting unverified claims of a terrorist organisation’.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also blamed the United States for the attack, saying in a televised speech late on Tuesday that Washington gave Israel ‘the cover for its aggression.’
‘The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,’ he said, adding that the attack will be ‘a new turning point.’
Haniyeh called on all Palestinian people ‘to get out and confront the occupation and the settlers.’
He also called on all Arabs, and Muslims to stage protests against Israel.
Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal also called for protests in front of Israeli embassies across the world after the hospital blast.
Amidst all this, a tweet surfaced online purportedly made by Ben Netanyahu-appointed Israeli Digital Spokesperson @HananyaNaftali, claiming that Israel hit a hospital from where Hamas was launching rockets into Israel.
An X user, Jackson Hinkle, in a tweet claimed that Naftali posted the claim and deleted it following international backlash.
He wrote: “Netanyahu-appointed Israeli Digital Spokesperson, @HananyaNaftali
just posted, then DELETED, a tweet admitting that Israel bombed the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, killing 500 civilians.
Only problem? Naftali reported that the IDF thought they hit a “terrorist base.”
Whoops.”
However, this claim cannot be independently verified at the time of writing this.
