Gaza hospital explosion: How a deadly blast near al-Ahli center unfolded
Hamas and Israel have been blaming each other for a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital complex.
President Joe Biden backed up Israel’s statements on Wednesday as he visited Tel Aviv. Biden said he was “outraged and saddened” by the loss of life in Gaza City. But he said U.S. intelligence indicated that Israel was not behind the explosion.
Here's a look at what happened, and what the different parties are saying:
What happened and where
An explosion in a courtyard and parking lot adjacent to al-Ahli Hospital in a Gaza City suburb reportedly killed or injured hundreds of patients and people in the vicinity on Tuesday.
Mohammed Abu Selmia − general director of Shifa Hospital, where the wounded and dead were transferred after the explosion − said early Wednesday that he believed the death toll was close to 250, with hundreds more wounded, The Associated Press reported.
The American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which operates the medical center, said in a statement Tuesday evening that hundreds of staff, patients, and refugees who were sheltering at Ahli Arab Hospital were killed and wounded.
Palestinians have been seeking refuge in and around hospitals from the Israeli bombardment of Gaza prompted by the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage that killed 1,400 people in Israeli territory. More than 3,000 people have been killed and more than 12,500 have been injured in Gaza, according to its health ministry.
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What the U.S. says
The U.S. said Wednesday that its intelligence assessments indicated Israel was not behind the hospital explosion.
“While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Air Force Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said separately that the Defense Department’s intelligence assessment is that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.
Paste BN received more detail about the U.S. perspective from U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. Imagery that shows the lack of a bomb crater and heat trails from rockets being fired inside Gaza have led officials to believe the hospital blast was caused by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants.
The explosives in Israeli bombs, even in the smallest version, leave a crater when they explode, according to U.S. officials who have been briefed on intelligence findings about the explosion. Sensors can detect the heat generated during the blast off a rocket or missile, a trail known a “heat signature.” Israeli airstrikes rely principally on joint direct attack munitions, precision-guided weapons developed by the Pentagon. The bombs rely on global position system (GPS) guidance to strike targets with a high degree of accuracy in all weather conditions. The evidence taken together has led these military officials to conclude that Israel did not attack the hospital, the officials said.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday, while visiting Israel, that Pentagon officials had shown him data that concluded Israel was not responsible for the explosion. The explosion at the hospital has prompted anger and protests across the region directed at Israel and the United States.
What Israel and the IDF says
The Israeli military denied involvement and released video, audio and other information to support its claim that the explosion resulted from a misfired missile from the Islamic Jihad, a militant group that sometimes cooperates with Hamas and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) compares examples of craters caused by IDF ordnance to the damage near the hospital.
Israel Defense Forces posted a video claiming the rocket originated from Gaza. The footage was posted on X with text that reads: "RAW FOOTAGE: A rocket aimed at Israel misfired and exploded at 18:59 − the same moment a hospital was hit in Gaza."
What Palestinian leadership says
Hamas has blamed Israel for Tuesday's explosion, and its health ministry says the blast killed at least 500 people. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, pushed back on the Israeli narrative in a video posted by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets.
In it, Mansour appears to be speaking from the United Nations, surrounded by other Arab diplomats, and he says: “It is a lie. And they, the Israeli spokesperson of the army about a week ago made a statement in which he said evacuate the hospitals, the hospitals are target and in fact they hit one hospital a week ago. So their intentions is evacuate or hospitals will be hit. And they are responsible for that crime and they cannot fabricate stories to deal with it.”
Is it possible to get to the bottom of what happened?
Is there any kind of independent investigative team that can resolve the matter by cutting through the politics and examining the forensic evidence to find out who is responsible? The short answer is yes, but with some caveats.
"The essential point is that time is of the essence here for an accurate investigation of the site," said David Scheffer, an international law expert who served as the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. "You would need a 'dream team' of forensic scientists skilled enough to look at the evidence on the ground and that which has been put forward by all sides, including Israel, the Biden administration and Hamas."
Scheffer told Paste BN, given the superheated climate around Israel's intensifying war with Hamas, "how would you create the team quickly that would be acceptable to both sides so that it doesn't ignite political fires given its composition?"
Options might include the International Criminal Court, the U.N.-affiliated Commission of Inquiry, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, but all have their challenges. Learn more here: Could an independent inquiry help assess blame for Gaza strike? Yes, but it's tricky.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, John Bacon, Jorge Ortiz, Kim Hjelmgaard, Paste BN.