Devastating Gaza Hospital Blast—What We Know

Hundreds of people have been reported killed in an explosion at a Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, NGOs and several Arab and Muslim nations blaming an Israeli airstrike and Israel saying it resulted from a Palestinian rocket blast.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, led by the Hamas movement currently embroiled in its largest conflict with Israel, has estimated at least 500 people were killed in what it said was an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital on Tuesday.

In a statement, Hamas condemned a "horrific massacre carried out by the Zionist occupation" against the site. Hamas political leaders Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh called on Arabs and Muslims across the globe to rise up in protest.

A number of other international non-government organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders, quickly attributed the explosion to an Israeli airstrike. The governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Türkiye were also among those to condemn what was said to be an Israeli airstrike in the initial hours following the event.

But the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the devastation was the result of a failed rocket strike by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction fighting alongside Hamas.

"An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit," the IDF said in a statement.

"Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza," the statement added.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the number of casualties or the cause behind the blast.

A follow-up video statement by IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari doubled down on the claims, asserting that "this is the responsibility of Islamic Jihad that killed innocents in the hospital in Gaza."

A separate IDF statement asserted that "the terrorist organizations within the Gaza Strip fire indiscriminately toward Israel" and that, "since the beginning of the war, approximately 450 rockets launched toward Israel have fallen within Gaza, endangering and harming the lives of Gazan residents."

Later, in a virtual briefing with reporters, Hagari went into further detail on the IDF's investigation, saying it constituted a review of Israeli air, land and sea attacks on Gaza, as well as rocket-detecting radars, which he said detected a barrage of rockets going toward Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital. Hagari said that there were no such Israeli attacks that occurred "next to the hospital" at this time, nor did the damage "fit any ammunition with the air force."

He said the IDF then mobilized one of its drones to observe the scene. Hagari shared with reporters aerial footage purporting to show the aftermath of the explosion, which he said showed "no direct hit on the hospital," but a blackened area where a "direct hit" was assessed to have taken place as a result of rockets striking the facility's parking lot.

He suggested potential secondary explosions may have been caused by something "interesting" near or under the hospital, but could not yet confirm the presence of ammunition, fuel or other materials being stored at the site.

Hagari also said the IDF had possession of Arabic-language conversations suggesting that Islamic Jihad was behind the attack and were aware of it.

Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, did not immediately put out a media statement in response to the blast, but continued to report on rocket attacks on Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv, Ashdod and Ashkelon "in response to the occupation's massacres against civilians."

Some countries, such as Germany, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization, condemned an attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, without attributing blame.

While violence in the 75-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict had spiked to record levels in the past year and a half, an unprecedented surprise attack conducted by Hamas against Israel on October 7 and the IDF's largest-ever bombing campaign against the Gaza Strip has marked the deadliest flare-up in decades.

Israeli officials have said that at least 1,400 people in Israel have been killed since the Hamas land, air and sea assault. Officials in Gaza estimated that the death toll among Palestinians has reached 3,000.

Outrage over the latest episode at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital comes on the eve of President Joe Biden's planned visit to Israel, where he is expected to affirm his support to the U.S. ally amid the ongoing conflict, followed by a trip to neighboring Jordan.

In a statement shared by the White House on Tuesday evening, Biden said he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted." He said he spoke with both King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and had directed U.S. national security officials "to continue gathering information about what exactly happened."

The president did not assign responsibility for the attack.

"The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict," Biden said, "and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy."

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