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Hamas has claimed that Israel’s ‘proof’ over who is to blame for the deadly Gaza hospital bombing is an ‘outrageous lie’ – despite the ‘’IDF producing proof they didn’t cause the blast.”
The terror group made the claim hours after Israeli officials shared an audio clip in which two alleged Hamas terrorists can be heard discussing the explosion and confirming the rocket came from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an independent jihadist group.
‘They are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It’s from us?’ one alleged Hamas member asks in the clip provided by Israel’s military intelligence.
‘It looks like it,’ the other responded. ‘It misfired and fell on them… God bless – couldn’t it have found another place to explode?’
The alleged recording came after Israeli officials released a video of the moment a rocket purportedly streaking towards Israel from Gaza appears to suffer a problem and suddenly changes course before flaming out.
Moments later, a pair of explosions erupted in the city below, the result of what Israel claims was the rocket falling back to Earth and striking the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
‘This is the tragic result of firing rockets from densely populated neighbourhoods,’ the IDF said.
And finally, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari showed a series of infrared images, satellite photos, and intelligence documents he said proved the damage caused at the hospital could not possibly have come from an Israeli strike.
He explained the images showed there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli hospital, no craters in the adjacent car park, and no debris consistent with an air strike, implying a direct hit from an Israeli missile would have caused far more destruction.
The walls stay intact. There are no craters in the parking lot. These are the characteristics that show it was not an aerial munition that hit the parking lot,’ he concluded.
He also pointed out images of what he claimed was shrapnel on the roof of nearby buildings, suggesting the rocket fell apart in the air and sprayed its detritus across a larger area.
RUSI aerial warfare analyst Justin Bronk agreed with Hagari’s statements, writing: ‘No crater or obvious shrapnel pattern consistent with IAF JDAM/Mk80 series bombs visible… Still not conclusive but if this is the extent of the damage I’d say an airstrike looks less likely than a rocket failure causing an explosion and fuel fire.’
Hagari said Hamas knew the hospital blast was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket but launched a ‘global media campaign’ to blame Israel.
‘They understood with absolute certainty that it was a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad that damaged the hospital,’ Hagari said.
‘Unlike Hamas, the IDF launched an immediate examination’ of the attack, he said, going on to explain there was no IDF fire ‘from land, sea or air that hit the hospital’.
‘I can confirm that an analysis of the IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli Al Mahdi Hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.
‘Intelligence from a few sources that we have in our hands indicates that the Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.
‘I repeat, this is the responsibility of Islamic Jihad that killed innocents in the hospital in Gaza.’
He concluded that some 450 rockets fired from Gaza have fallen short and landed inside the strip in the last 11 days. These claims could not be independently verified.
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN that Israel ‘categorically’ does not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, including hospitals.
‘We did not strike that, and that the intelligence that we have suggests that it was a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad,’ he said.
‘I want to add, categorically, that we do not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, and definitely not hospitals,’ he said.
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