A deadly explosion ripped through the parking lot of a Gaza Strip hospital on Tuesday, allegedly killing hundreds of people, some of whom reportedly had taken shelter there from Israeli airstrikes.
Since the shocking images of the bloody aftermath have become global news, Israelis and the Palestinians are accusing each other of perpetrating a strike.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement blaming the Hamas terrorists for murdering their own children at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, as reported by The Times of Israel: “So the whole world knows: The barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the Gaza hospital, not the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Those who cruelly murdered our children murder their children as well.”
The Israeli position is that the missile that struck the hospital parking lot was an errant rocket launched by the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad, reported The Times of Israel.
The report provided surveillance footage allegedly showing a barrage of rockets from northern Gaza, including the failed projectile that struck the hospital grounds.
The IDF also released what it said was an intercepted phone call between Hamas operatives who discussed the missile failed missile strike that hit the Gaza hospital parking lot, per the same Times of Israel report.
However, in the initial hours after the hospital parking lot was struck, Hananya Naftali, a member of Israel’s digital warfare taskforce, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza. A multiple number of terrorists are dead. It’s heartbreaking that Hamas is launching rockets from hospitals, Mosques, schools, and using civilians as human shields.” That post was later deleted, with Naftali explaining in a new post that he had relied on an incorrect Reuters article when he attributed the strike to the IDF.
That Naftali withdrew the apparent admission of responsibility prompted many posters to question whether the subsequent deletion and denial was merely damage control. The Censored Men account asked: “Why did u delete your initial tweet?” It then proceeded to answer its rhetorical question. “You’ve already confirmed that Netanyahu has put you on an official Israeli task force to control the narrative online, this means you get information from Israeli intelligence BEFORE the media does. This means that your initial tweet most likely got checked by Israeli intelligence officials before you were allowed to post it,” they posted on X.
In the middle of the back-and-forth accusations, President Joe Biden — who followed through on a pre-planned visit to Tel Aviv that was put in doubt earlier because of the hospital bombing — cautioned Israeli officials not to let their anger cloud their judgment.
“I caution this, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” Biden said in a speech following his meeting with Netanyahu. “After 9/11, we were enraged in the U.S. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes,” as reported by NBC News.
Biden also waded into the debate over who is to blame for the deadly blast at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, absolving Israel but seeming to hedge.
“Based on what I have seen, it was done by the other team, not you,” the President commented while seated with Netanyahu before vaguely adding, “But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure. So we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”
The war of words over who should be blamed for the explosion in the hospital parking lot continued on social media.
Popular opinion writer Keith Woods questioned how this devastating rocket could have originated with Palestinian groups when, for 15 years, their prior missile strikes against Israel only caused a handful of deaths.
“In 15 years, 12 thousand Palestinian rockets killed a total of 33 Israelis. But Israel wants us to believe it was one of these wayward rockets that killed 500 people tonight?” Woods posted on X, referencing Palestinian reports of the number killed, which has yet to be independently verified.
Independent journalist Mario Nawfal posted two analyses by experts that came to different conclusions. His first, purportedly done by a Marine Corps explosives and ordinance expert, concluded that based on analysis of the sound from the projectile recorded in a video of the strike, it was possibly a JDAM missile, stating that Hamas does not have the capabilities or infrastructure to fire such a missile.
In his second post, Nawfal relayed the conclusion of geolocating experts who said the evidence pointed to a rocket launched by a Palestinian group that exploded mid-air causing a piece to fall and explode in the hospital parking lot.
The Federalist posted on X, criticizing mainstream American media for being taken in by what it considered “terrorist propaganda” to blame Israel.
