Israel says it has proof Islamist militants were behind deadly hospital blast

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the massacre was ‘unprecedented’ (Picture: AP/Getty/Reuters)

Israel’s military says it has proof an Islamist militant group was responsible for the devastating blast at a hospital in Gaza which is feared to have killed up to 500 people.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the massacre was ‘unprecedented’, with many of those killed at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital being women and children.

It has inflamed tensions in a region already in crisis since Hamas’s murderous rampage across the border on October 7, triggering protests against Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign.

But the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have hit back at claims they were responsible and insisted none of their aircraft were operating near the hospital at the time.

Up to 500 people are feared to have died in the strike

Doctors of the al-Shifa Hospital making a press statement among the corpses after the injured and dead are brought there following the blast (Picture: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Wounded Palestinian children lay at the al-Shifa hospital (Picture: AP)

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also told reporters the impact of the explosion could not have been caused by the types of weapons they use.

He said officials had confirmed no Israeli land or naval forces were conducting operations at the time and shared footage of what he claimed was radar footage of a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.

The route of the volley appeared to sail directly over the hospital.

Hagari said the drone footage would be released later, adding: ‘We are running on it because someone is doing a fake on us, on Israel.’

He said intercepted calls between militants backed up the claims and that the IDF hoped to be able to release the material by the time US President Joe Biden arrives in Israel.

One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior advisers similarly blamed the disaster on a failed rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

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Speaking to Sky News, he said: The statistics are clear. In past rounds of fighting, some 33% of Islamic Jihad rockets fired at Israel fell short and landed in Gaza.

‘Our intelligence is reporting to us that there was Islamic Jihad fire over the vicinity of the hospital and apparently a rocket malfunctioned and hit the hospital.

‘We had a documented case of this in the last round of fighting in 2021 where everyone said Israel had hit a target and killed an innocent family. 

‘In the end we could prove with a video that it was their rocket that was launched and we saw the rocket land.’

In a statement of their own, the terror group described Israel’s accusations as ‘lies’.

It said: ‘The accusations put forward by the enemy are false and baseless.’

They claimed Israel had ordered the hospital to evacuate and a bomb dropped by an Israeli plane caused the blast.

Protesters took to the streets in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and in the West Bank after former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called for demonstrations in front of embassies around the world.

People gather to protest against Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza (Picture: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Protesters demonstrate in front of the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey (Picture: Getty)

Demonstrators set fire to a makeshift Israeli flag during a protest (Picture: Reuters)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group called for ‘a day of unprecedented anger’ against Israel and Biden’s visit.

The president’s visit was supposed to help calm the region and shore up humanitarian efforts for Gaza.

But in the wake of the hospital strike, Jordan cancelled a summit with him, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Abbas also pulled out of a meeting with Biden.

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