Rocket Misfired by Palestinian Terror Group to Blame for Hospital Blast That Killed Hundreds: IDF

People gather around bodies of Palestinians killed in an explosion at the Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza after they were transported to Al-Shifa hopsital, on Oct. 17, 2023. Dawood Nemer/AFP via Getty Images

The Israeli military said that a massive blast that reportedly killed hundreds at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday was not caused by an Israeli air strike, as the Hamas terror group alleged, but by a rocket misfired by another terrorist organization affiliated with Hamas.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 500 people were killed in an explosion at the al-Ahli hospital and blamed an Israeli air strike for the carnage, calling it a “horrific massacre.”

Israeli forces blamed Islamic Jihad, a smaller and even more radical Palestinian organization than the Hamas terror group that shares many of Hamas’s aims and attitudes, including holding a vehemently anti-Israel stance.

Wounded Palestinians sit in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after arriving from al-Ahli hospital following an explosion there, on Oct. 17, 2023. Abed Khaled/AP Photo

What Happened?

At around 7 p.m. local time, an explosion rocked the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City.

The hospital is located in the central Gaza Strip, where Israel has been carrying out what it says are precision strikes targeting the Hamas terror group after Hamas operatives raided Israeli communities, killing hundreds of civilians.

Gruesome scenes from the hospital blast were broadcast widely, with fire engulfing the building and the hospital grounds strewn with bodies of the dead, including children.

Many news outlets picked up the narrative pushed by Hamas, namely that Israeli air strikes had caused the carnage.

Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill piled on as well, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a member of the left-wing “Squad,” posting on X that Israel “just bombed” the hospital, “killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that.”

But as more information came to light, including aerial footage collected by a military drone, that version of events began to crumble.

“Media outlets around the globe were quick to run Hamas’ headlines—without fact checking,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a post on X.

“We now know that an Islamic Jihad rocket aimed at Israel misfired and hit the hospital in Gaza,” it added.

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct.17, 2023. Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo

Raw footage shared by IDF shows what it says was a rocket aimed at Israel that “misfired and exploded at 18:59—the same moment a hospital was hit in Gaza.”

The footage shows a rocket streaking across the sky before exploding in the air and debris falling, followed by an explosion on the ground—and then an inferno engulfing a building.

Islamic Jihad to Blame: IDF

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters at a press briefing that the Israeli army determined there were no Israeli air force, ground, or naval attacks in the area at the time of the explosion.

Adm. Hagari said radars detected outgoing rocket fire at the same moment the blast took place. He added that intercepted communications between armed Palestinian groups indicated that Islamic Jihad had fired the rockets.

“I can confirm that an analysis of the IDF operational systems indicates 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,” Adm. Hagari said.

He added that intelligence from multiple sources indicates that Islamic Jihad “is responsible for the failed rocket launch” that hit the hospital.

“I repeat, this is the responsibility of Islamic Jihad,” Adm. Hagari said.

The IDF shared an image it said had been taken by radar, showing the trajectories of rockets allegedly fired from Gaza toward Israel, with the al-Ahli hospital located almost directly in the line of fire.

A graphic shared by the Israel Defence Forces showing the trajectories of rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, with the location of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that was rocked by an explosion seen in the direct line of fire, on Oct. 17, 2023. (IDF)IDF

Adm. Hagari added that, since the start of the Israel–Hamas war, around 450 rockets that have been launched by terrorist organizations aimed at Israel ended up falling in the area of the Gaza Strip.

As more information has come to light about the blast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to X to say that “barbarian terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital in Gaza, not the IDF.”

“Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children,” he added.

The abandoned site of the weekend attack of the Supernova desert music festival by Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel on Oct. 10, 2023. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

It has been widely alleged that members of the Hamas terror group, who killed children among the 1,400 or so victims of their brutal Oct. 7 assault on Israeli communities, use Gaza residents as human shields.

Hamas terrorists mounted a surprise raid on Oct. 7, targeting mostly civilians with shocking tactics that included rapes, maimings, and torture, including of children.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, retaliatory air strikes by Israeli forces have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700.

Since their attack against Israel, Hamas operatives have launched rockets every single day, aiming at cities across Israel.