An airstrike on a Gaza hospital that Hamas says killed at least 500 people came from the Islamic Jihad terror group in a botched launch, Israel said.
“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing near the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” the IDF said. Israeli army. “Intelligence available to us from several sources indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket attack that hit the Gaza hospital. »
Earlier, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 500 people had been killed in hospital. These deaths were the result of an Israeli airstrike, according to the statement.
However, Israel said it was investigating the source of the explosion and said a hospital was not a target for its military forces.
“A hospital is an extremely sensitive building and is not an IDF target,” the Israeli army said earlier.
Additional review and cross-examination of operational and intelligence systems by the IDF concluded that the IDF did not fire the rocket, the IDF said.
Islamic Jihad was responsible for the rocket launch failure, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Tuesday.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a clip on Qatar-based Al Jazeera’s X, officially known as Twitter, purportedly showing Islamic Jihad launching a rocket that misfired and hit the hospital.
“The Palestinians falsely claim that Israel targeted a hospital in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said. “The problem is, they are the ones who have a history of launching missiles at hospitals full of innocent civilians.”
The Israeli prime minister rejected accusations by Hamas and Palestinian supporters that the IDF targeted the hospital filled with wounded and others seeking shelter.
“The whole world knew: it was the barbaric terrorists from Gaza who attacked the Gaza hospital, not the Israeli army,” he wrote on X, officially on Twitter. “The one who brutally murdered our children is also murdering his children.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said terrorists in Gaza “are not only responsible for killing Israeli children – they are also murdering Palestinian children!”
“You saw Hamas and PIJ beheading children. Stop believing these ISIS type terrorists,” he wrote on social media. “The only ones firing indiscriminate missiles at civilians are the Palestinians, who have been doing it for years!” »
An image that accompanied the post indicated that Gaza terrorist groups were deliberately placing pits and launch posts in civilian areas and in the line of fire, making them vulnerable to misfires.