Hundreds of Palestinians who were taking refuge from Israeli bombing in the Al Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza City died on Tuesday night when a projectile fell on the health center, the oldest in the Gaza Strip, and caused a huge explosion. . Hamas, the military-political group that governs Gaza, quickly blamed Israeli aviation for the bombing, which it considered deliberate, while Israel claims in a preliminary investigation that the cause of what it called an “explosion” was a rocket that failed after being fired from a shuttle from the Islamic Jihad, the other militia that operates in the Gaza Strip and which denies any responsibility.
Here is what is known so far about the explosion at Al Ahli hospital, formerly known as Al-Ma’amadani, the only Christian medical center in Gaza, which has been operating since 1882 and is under the direction of the Episcopal diocese of Jerusalem:
On Tuesday, the Strip’s Ministry of Health put the death toll in the attack on the hospital at 471 and the number of injuries at 314. According to a doctor, at the time of the bombing, about 4,000 people were sheltering in the facility. An Al Jazeera journalist confirmed it: “This area was full of displaced people who abandoned their homes after receiving orders to evacuate from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF),” said Tareq Abu Azzoum, referring to the evacuation of the northern half of the strip that Tel Aviv ordered from the Palestinians last Saturday.
A doctor surrounded by corpses in white plastic bags described the barbarity: “They tried to find a safe place in the only Christian hospital on the strip and were massacred. “All these dead people came with amputated body parts,” he says in front of the camera.
According to images captured by journalists on the ground, the site of the projectile impact shows a parking lot full of burned cars resulting from a large fire. The interior of at least one adjacent building has suffered damage to the false ceiling and windows, with glass on the floor. No building debris is visible on the ground.
There are images on social networks, which have not been able to be verified, which according to some analysts would show the launch of the rocket that would have caused the explosion. In them you can see how a projectile explodes in the air in the middle of the darkness and then two explosions are observed on the ground.
The Israeli army denies that the massacre was caused by a bombing but rather by an explosion with less destruction capacity than its missiles. According to the Israeli version, the impact took place in the adjacent parking lot due to a failed rocket that the Islamic Jihad had launched against Israeli territory from a cemetery near the hospital. The projectile was part of a barrage of ten other rockets, which were launched at 6:59 p.m. on Tuesday.
“There is no structural damage to the building, the walls are whole, there is no crater, there is no damage except in the parking lot,” the spokesman for the Israeli Armed Forces, Daniel Hagari, insisted in a press conference, reiterating that there was no damage in this No attack by the Israeli Army has taken place “either by air, land or sea.” According to the spokesman, since the beginning of hostilities 450 projectiles launched by Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fallen inside the Strip.
The Israeli army reinforces its theory with several arguments. The first is that if it had been an Israeli bomb, it would have caused greater damage. A crater would also be seen at the impact site and the adjacent buildings would have suffered structural damage, something that the images released by journalists at the site do not show.
Hagari also showed the launching point of the projectiles that the Islamic Jihad had used, which is located a few kilometers further southwest, and their trajectory.
According to the military spokesman, the Hebrew intelligence services intercepted a telephone conversation between two members of Hamas in which one informed the other that the projectile belonged to the Islamic Jihad. [It should be noted that one of the reasons why the Hebrew army was surprised by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on February 7 was its inability to trace its communications during the preparation of it]
According to the transcription and translation offered by Israel, one states: “They say the shrapnel is ours.” The other responds: “But, God bless us, couldn’t they have found another place to exploit?” To which the first tells him that the rocket was launched from the cemetery behind the hospital. [This location contradicts the information provided by the Hebrew army itself, since the Gaza cemetery is located in the vicinity of the hospital].
The Islamic Jihad in Palestine, the second armed group in Gaza, rejected the Israeli accusation, which it blamed for the attack. “The Zionist enemy is trying to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed by bombing the National Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza by its habitual fabrication of lies and pointing the finger of blame at the Islamic Yidas movement,” he said in a statement. . “The accusations are false and baseless,” he added.
Islamic Jihad was founded in the 1980s in the Gaza Strip to fight against the Israeli occupation and today maintains a presence in both Gaza and the West Bank. At times it has come to overshadow Hamas, as in last May’s hostilities, where it took center stage, while Hamas apparently devoted itself to management. In reality, these hostilities allowed Israel’s attention to be diverted from Hamas, while it prepared its attack (which it would have planned for at least a year). Iran supports both groups with financing and weapons. Israel, the United States and the European Union consider both to be terrorist organizations.
The American president, Joe Biden, demonstrated his support for Israel yesterday during his visit to the Hebrew country. “Based on what I’ve seen, it seems like it was the other side, but there are a lot of people out there who aren’t sure, so we have a lot ahead of us,” the president said at the beginning of his meeting with the Israeli prime minister. , Benjamin Netanyahu, in front of the television cameras.
From Washington, the White House maintained a more reserved stance. Israel feels “very strongly” that they did not cause it, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. They “categorically and very stridently denied having anything to do with this.”
