Palestinian officials in the besieged Gaza Strip blamed an Israeli strike for the explosion at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, while the Israeli army said it was caused by an errant rocket fired by the armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which denied the assertion. Israel’s ally the United States has also put the blame on Palestinian fighters, while Arab states have blamed Israel.
The Palestinian health ministry said more than 470 people were killed in the explosion, while Israel said the number was deliberately inflated. US intelligence agencies assessed the number of victims to be between 100 and 300 people.
In the days leading up to the explosion, Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of Gaza to evacuate to the southern part of the Strip ahead of a looming ground offensive. Israel’s military specifically issued evacuation warnings to the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, according to the Anglican Church that runs the medical facility.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office said staff were trying to collect evidence on the ground, but the heavy bombardment and the shortage of fuel amid Israel’s “total siege” of the enclave were hampering efforts.
Meanwhile, several news organisations including Al Jazeera have analysed video footage of the incident in recent days to piece together what happened. While Al Jazeera continues to gather information, here is what you need to know:
What happened?
The explosion took place at about 7pm local time (16:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Live footage from Al Jazeera showed a bright light rising in the sky and flashing twice before drastically changing direction and exploding.
A blast is then seen on the ground in the distance, followed by a second much larger explosion closer to the camera.
In the aftermath, footage and images from inside the hospital compound showed about two dozen destroyed vehicles in a car park. They were surrounded by damaged buildings with some of their windows blown out and blood on the walls and the ground.
What does the footage reveal?
An investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification team found 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.
Based on a detailed review of all videos, Sanad concluded that the flash Israel attributed to a misfire was in fact consistent with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepting a missile fired from the Gaza Strip and destroying it in midair.
Channel 4, which published a video analysis examining the evidence presented by both sides, said there was “no proof that the midair and ground explosions are necessarily linked”.
So far, there appears to be no conclusive evidence to determine who was behind the second blast, the one that hit al-Ahli hospital. A number of organisations have suggested that the relatively small crater left by the attack appears incompatible with weapons habitually launched by Israel.
However, the use of a different type of artillery cannot be ruled out.
Source: aljazeera.com
Author: Al Jazeera Staff
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