At least 500 people were killed in the deadliest airstrike since war broke out between Hamas and Israel. The violent attack targeted the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City at around 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities denied the responsibility against a backdrop of competing online narratives and widespread disinformation. Gaza's health ministry claimed the blast was caused by an Israeli rocket attack. On the other side, the Israeli military said its intelligence officers had tracked rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an armed militant group in Gaza that is aligned with Hamas against Israel but often acts independently.
In the hours after the attack, the Israeli government posted a video where it claimed that PIJ, not Israel, was responsible for the Gaza Baptist hospital massacre. After a while, the initial post was edited to remove the video, though they left up the same vague cover story.
Israel posted and then quickly deleted a video it claimed showed that Islamic Jihad was responsible for Baptist hospital massacre in Gaza. Their usual lies will not cover up this atrocity. Left is original @israel tweet, right is edited version. pic.twitter.com/mKWSFvEPRg
— Ali Abunimah is now on bluesky (@AliAbunimah) October 17, 2023
Netizens were quick to take screenshots of the posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. They shared both the initial post with the video and the edited one, arguing that Israel is caught lying again. A tweet from alternative news outlet Censored Men responded to the edited social media post of Israel with: "Why did u delete your initial tweet? You've already confirmed that Netanyahu has put you on an official Israeli task force to control the narrative online, this means you get information from Israeli intelligence BEFORE the media does." It added that most likely Israel's initial tweet got checked by Israeli intelligence officials before they were allowed to post it. But then they deleted it because they were told to retract the initial "rhetoric that Hamas was using the hospital as a human shield. "Now it's a misfired Hamas rocket that hit the hospital. Very suspicious," the independent media channel said. (Related: Who blew up the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza? Israel initially took credit, then denied all responsibility.)
Why did u delete your initial tweet?
You’ve already confirmed that Netanyahu has put you on an official Israeli task force to control the narrative online, this means you get information from Israeli intelligence BEFORE the media does.
This means that your initial tweet most… https://t.co/t1riKgf2An pic.twitter.com/0IZLWVJvAZ
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) October 17, 2023
"Their usual lies will not cover up this atrocity," another X user @AliAbunimah said.
Moreover, Israel released another video they claimed "documented the moment" an Islamic Jihad rocket "misfired and hit a hospital in Gaza" but the timestamp allegedly did not line up. Aric Toler, a former Bellingcat researcher who now works for the New York Times, pointed out that the time stamp on the video showed 8:00 p.m. local time, a full hour after the explosion took place. "When you see people in such a capacity putting out a claim, walking it back, putting out a video, deleting the video, it makes it tough, not just for us to do our job but even for the public to find out what's going on," Koltai said.
Meanwhile, a damning sound analysis from another X user Lord Bebo suggested the strike was most likely carried out by Israel with an extremely powerful United States-supplied Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM missile). Incidentally, the U.S. announced just days ago they were sending Israel more of the said guided air-to-surface weapons that enable high-priority fixed and relocatable targets from fighter and bomber aircraft.
??????? BREAKING: The hospital was hit with a very high probability by a JDAM bomb.
- This means it was the Israeli airforce.
- This means it was a targeted attack.
No words …
UPDATED with comparison to the missiles. https://t.co/uKC8pI8kV4 pic.twitter.com/CJXQa8uMWU
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) October 17, 2023
Biden to Israel on Gaza hospital bombing: "It was not you"
President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he believes in the latter's claim that it was not them who bombed the Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday. "Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," the POTUS said.
"Based on what I've seen it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you, but there's a lot of people out there not sure, so, we've got, so, we've got to overcome a lot of things." - Biden addresses Gaza Baptist hospital bombing while in Israel pic.twitter.com/kVie5MbMGa
— Chris Menahan ?? (@infolibnews) October 18, 2023
Roughly 2,800 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. An additional 1,200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said. Those numbers predate the explosion at the central Gaza hospital. Biden had a 7 1/2-hour visit last Wednesday in Israel, where he produced a heaping dose of vocal support. He claimed to have closed a deal to get limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, likely by the end of the week. He also reportedly pleaded for Israelis not to allow rage over the deadly Hamas attack to consume them.
Visit Terrorism.news for updates on the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.