Israeli authorities have released infographics, drone footage and voice recordings they say prove they did not attack a hospital in Gaza.
A blast at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Tuesday has killed more than 500 people, the Gaza Health Ministry estimates, and harrowing imagery has shown this number includes multiple children.
This was the deadliest single event of the current conflict so far.
Hamas has blamed an Israeli airstrike, but the Israeli military claims the site was hit with a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militant group – which has also denied involvement.
The spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, held a news conference on Wednesday to lay out what he said was evidence his country’s claims are true.
In a recording which Israel describes as an intercepted call, Admiral Hagari said you can hear “terrorists talking about rockets misfiring".
Islamic Jihad struck a Hospital in Gaza—the IDF did not.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 18, 2023
Listen to the terrorists as they realize this themselves: pic.twitter.com/u7WyU8Rxwz
According to an English transcript published by the IDF, one man says: “I'm telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling and so that's why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Another one replies “What? It’s from us? Who says this?”
Before the other explains “that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel” before he adding: “But God Bless, it couldn't have found another place to explode?”
The audio and the transcript have not been independently verified.
Israel claims that rockets fired by militant groups often fail, with Admiral Hagari telling reporters that, as of Tuesday, roughly 450 had missed their target and accidentally landed in Gaza during the conflict.
He showed the press a map of what he said highlighted the locations of these failed launches – also not independently verified.
Admiral Hagari went on to make the argument that there were no Israeli aircraft operating in the area of the hospital at the time it was hit.
The PIJ has said in a statement: “The Zionist enemy is trying hard to evade its responsibility for the brutal massacre he committed by bombing the Baptist Arab National Hospital in Gaza through his usual fabrication of lies, and through pointing the finger of blame at the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.
“We therefore affirm that the accusations put forward by the enemy are false and baseless.”
Much of the Middle East iappears to be holding Israel responsible, with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah calling for “a day of unprecedented anger”.
People have taken to the streets to protest in multiple cities with some crowds reportedly shouting “death to Israel”.
It has been 11 days since Hamas attacks on October 7 helped spark the current crisis and took the lives of at least 1,400 people in Israel while kidnapping up to 250.
