Israel military says no evidence of direct hit on Gaza hospital

JERUSALEM - Israel's military on Wednesday said it has seen no evidence of a direct hit by aerial munitions on a hospital in the Gaza Strip the day before.

Hundreds of people were reported to have been killed.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, has blamed Israel for the blast.

Israel says it was a result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the enclave.

In an English-language briefing, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation has “confirmed that there was no IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fire from the land, sea or air that hit the hospital”.

He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al Ahli Arab Hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.

Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, Mr Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire.

“Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead,” he said.

Mr Hagari also accused Hamas of inflating the number of casualties from the explosion, and said the militant group could not know as quickly as it claimed what caused the blast.

The death toll from the hospital explosion was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence.

The incident has triggered protests in the occupied West Bank and in the wider region, including in Jordan and Turkey.

Mr Hagari said some 450 rockets fired from Gaza had fallen short and landed inside the Strip within the last 11 days.

“We have intelligence about communication between terrorists talking about rockets misfiring,” Mr Hagari said, without elaborating.

Before Tuesday’s blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had been killed in Israel’s 11-day bombardment.

The Israeli military action is in retaliation for a Hamas attack in southern Israel on Oct 7 which killed around 1,400 people. Around 200 people were also taken into Gaza as hostages.

The fighting has raised fears of a widening war in the Middle East.

The United States has sent aircraft carriers to support Israel.

Allies of Hamas, including Iran and Teheran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, have vowed to respond to a planned Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Flare-ups on the Iraeli-Lebanese border since the Hamas attack have been the deadliest in 17 years.

Several Hezbollah fighters, three civilians in Lebanon and at least three Israeli soldiers have been killed. REUTERS