Multiple investigations debunk the Israeli army’s claims regarding the massive explosion that struck the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, mostly women and children.

On Tuesday, October 17, a massive airstrike hit the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Initially, a top aide for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hananya Naftali, took responsibility for the attack, stating in a tweet:

“Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza. A multiple number of terrorists are dead. It’s heartbreaking that Hamas is launching rockets from hospitals, Mosques, schools and using civilians as human shields.”

The tweet was quickly deleted, however, and a new Israeli version emerged.

In the following hours, Israel said that the mass killing of Palestinians in Al-Ahli was a result of a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad.

Since then, many attempted to answer the question: who bombed the Christian medical center?

Below, are the summaries of three different investigations that refuted the Israeli version of events. They also prove that the Israeli narrative on the unprecedented massacre of civilians was, in fact, fabricated.

1. Forensic Architecture

A joint analysis conducted by the independent university-based research agency, Forensic Architecture, Al-Haq and Earshot.ngo “casts significant doubt” on the Israeli account. 

It added, 

“In reviewing our analysis, investigator & explosive weapons expert @CobbSmith  agrees the fragmentation patterns may indicate the projectile came from the northeast—the direction of the Israeli-controlled side of the Gaza perimeter—and not from the west, as claimed by the IOF.”

According to Forensic Architecture, the “analysis of the crater size suggests a munition larger than eg a Spike or Hellfire missile commonly used by IOF drones.”

The Israeli army’s claim that the missile that hit the hospital came from the south-west was also refuted by Earshot.ngo, which performed independent audio analysis. 

Earshot also analyzed the recording released by the Israeli army of an alleged exchange between members of Hamas implicating the Islamic Jihad in the attack. According to Earshot, “this recording was manipulated and cannot be used as a credible source of evidence”.

Another investigation, carried out by Sanad Agency, found out that all the rockets launched toward Israel from the besieged Gaza Strip before the attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome system.

“The investigation reveals that Israeli statements seem to have misinterpreted the evidence to build a story that one of the flashes recorded by several sources was a rocket misfire,” Al Jazeera reported, adding:

“Based on a detailed review of all videos, Sanad’s analysts conclude that the flash Israel attributed to a misfire was in fact consistent with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting a missile fired from the Gaza Strip and destroying it in mid-air.” 

3. Ammunition Specialist

In an interview with the Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper, retired military officer and ammunition specialist Engin Yiğit said that,

“Bombs with proximity fuses or proximity sensors may not create craters where they explode.”

This was a response to the Israeli army’s imagery, claiming that the explosion could not have been the result of an airstrike, due to the absence of visible deep craters. 

“The hospital attack in Gaza may have been similar. How high the bomb explodes can be set by the user,” Yiğit noted.

Yiğit went as far as providing an early hypothesis, suggesting that it is strongly possible that the attack was carried out with an MK-84 guided bomb.

(The Palestine Chronicle)