U.S. security officials said Wednesday that “Israel is not responsible” for the deadly explosion at a Gaza City hospital, bolstering their ally’s claim that the previous day’s explosion was the result of a misfired Hamas rocket. .
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson offered the assessment hours after President Biden said at a news conference in Tel Aviv that he cited “the data that my Department of Defense showed me.”
Watson said the NSC had analyzed “aerial imagery, interceptions and open source information” and would continue to gather intelligence on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, which Gaza officials said killed about 500 people.
Independent investigators also poured cold water on claims of Israeli responsibility and suggested that the ruling Palestinian militant group inflated the death toll at the hospital in an attempt to inflame tensions in the region as Israel continues a relentless retaliatory airstrike. by the coordinated terrorist attack by Hamas. on October 7.
U.S. security officials said Wednesday that “Israel is not responsible” for the deadly explosion at a Gaza City hospital, bolstering their ally’s claim that the blast was caused by a misfired Hamas rocket.
“We don’t have any of the indicators of an airstrike, none,” Michael Knights, an expert on military and security issues at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the Wall Street Journal.
The Israeli military had cited radar and images of the hospital grounds that showed no structural damage to the facility or large craters in the parking lot where the explosion occurred, indicators that there was no airstrike.
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Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said investigators discovered that the Islamic Jihad arm of Hamas fired a volley of about 10 rockets at a nearby cemetery at 6:59 p.m., at the same time. time of the explosion.
This was corroborated by an alleged recording of two Islamic Jihad operatives admitting that their group had misfired a rocket from the cemetery.
“Islamic Jihad caused casualties in the hospital,” Hagari said.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson offered the assessment hours after President Biden said at a news conference in Tel Aviv that he cited “the data that my Department of Defense showed me.”
“We want maximum transparency because we take any incident involving civilians very, very seriously,” he continued, maintaining that the IDF “acts in accordance with international law” and does not bomb hospitals.
Several open source intelligence analysts agreed, citing limited shock wave damage and the small size of the area affected by the explosion.
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“At the moment, the preponderance of evidence points to this being a Hamas or Islamic Jihad rocket that hit the area,” Blake Spendley, an open source intelligence analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis, told the Journal. , a Virginia think tank.
“Something like a short-range rocket will cause more shooting,” he explained, referring to weapons used by Israel’s air force.
“With something like a JDAM [Joint Direct Action Munition] You’ll get a lot of explosive energy and not as much energy wasted on heat, fire or light. “There were some characteristics of the Palestinians killed in the attack that have led me to believe that much more fire than pure explosive energy emerged from the impact.”
Watson said the NSC had analyzed “aerial imagery, interceptions and open source information” and would continue to gather intelligence on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, which Gaza officials said killed about 500 people.REUTERS
Spendley reportedly estimated that a more realistic death toll would be around 50, rather than 500, but said that a definitive conclusion would require post-mortem analysis of the victims and other forensic field work that was unlikely to occur in the area of war.
“It’s not conclusive yet, but if this is the extent of the damage, then I would say an airstrike seems less likely than a rocket failure causing an explosion and fuel fire,” said Royal United Services analyst Justin Bronk. Institute, a think tank. tank in London, wrote in X.
Biden appeared to agree that more research was needed to debunk Hamas’s claim while addressing the international press.
“From what I’ve seen, it looks like the other team did it,” the president said. “But there are a lot of people who are not sure, so we have a lot of things to overcome.”
Suhaila Tarazi, Palestinian-American director of the Episcopal Church-run hospital, said four staff members were injured in the explosion and the facility was littered with broken glass and body parts on Wednesday, according to the report.
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: how we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after seizing the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins the Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches largest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, more than 4,200 wounded and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities. .
Hamas terrorists were seen taking women hostage and parading them down the street in gruesome videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised that Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report that at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured.
Hosam Naoum, the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, reportedly on Wednesday withdrew his blame on Israel for the previous day’s explosion, adding that the building was not hit directly.
“We know the victims were many,” he said, adding that thousands of evacuees had taken shelter in the facilities in recent days as he called on Biden to push for justice and peace.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn