Israel: ‘Failed Islamic Rocket Kills Many In Gaza Hospital’
By Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – Israel’s military said Tuesday that a Gaza Strip hospital was hit by a “failed Islamic Jihad rocket,” killing many people.
Officials in the Palestinian enclave issued contradictory statements about casualty numbers, ranging between dozens to hundreds.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, run by the Palestinian militant Hamas group, was quick to blame an Israeli air strike, saying as many as 500 people were killed.
Yet the Israel Defense Force said that a failed rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist movement appeared to have caused the explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
The explosion was reported when the PIJ announced that it had launched a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, Israeli media said.
Footage purportedly from al-Ahli Hospital showed fire engulfing the building, widespread damage, and bodies scattered in the wreckage.
However the Israeli military denied it was involved and stressed it targeted Hamas hideouts, infrastructure, and command centers and killed a crucial Hamas operative on Tuesday.
IDF ELIMINATES OPERATIVE
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, “We just eliminated Ayman Nofal, a senior Hamas operative.”
The IDF added that “Nofal was the Commander of Hamas’ Central Brigade in Gaza and the former Head of Military Intelligence.”
Nofal, the IDF explained, “directed many attacks against Israeli civilians and besides being one of the most dominant figures in the terrorist organization. He was involved in the planning of the abduction of Gilad Shalit,” an IDF soldier.
Shalin was captured in 2006 by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid via tunnels near the Israeli border.
Hamas held him captive for over five years until his release in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal. “We won’t stop until we eliminate Hamas,” the IDF warned Tuesday in a statement on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Israel has also accused Hamas of hiding its militants and weapons among civilians and halting people to flee south. Some “25 percent of rockets launched by the Islamic Jihad have fallen in Gaza. These misfires killed four innocent civilians including a ten year old,” Israel’s government said. “The Islamic Jihad isn’t just a threat to Israel. It’s a threat to the innocent men, women and children in Gaza that it happily places in the line of fire.”
Despite reports that a failed rocket hit the hospital, Hamas, which sparked the latest war with an attack last week that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, called Tuesday’s hospital strike “a horrific massacre.”
GROUP SEEKS DESTRUCTION
The group, which seeks the destruction of Israel and discouraged Palestinians to flee south, said most of the casualties were displaced families, patients, children, and women.
However, the United Nations expressed concern about civilian sites being hit. The U.N. said that besides the reported strike on the hospital, a school was hit in central Gaza where 4,000 people hid, killing at least six people.
“No place is safe in Gaza anymore. Not even [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] UNRWA facilities,” a U.N. spokesperson said after the school incident.
The Israeli military insisted it was not targeting civilians, adding: “When we see a Hamas target, we will go after it.”
At least 600,000 people have fled the northern Gaza Strip for the south after Israeli military warnings, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israel has blocked supplies of food, water, fuel, and electricity since the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7 but denies it seeks a humanitarian crisis.
The reported attacks came ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel on Wednesday to hear about its plans for a possible ground offensive in Gaza. Israel has suggested, however, that it may be a different military action than the world expects.
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