Israel claims that Islamic Jihad bombed Gaza hospital using video and audio

The Israeli army announced today that it has “evidence” that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group is responsible for the explosion that took place yesterday, Tuesday, at the Al-Ahli al-Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip, which killed hundreds of Palestinians.

“The evidence, which we are sharing with you, confirms that the explosion at a Gaza hospital was caused by the launch of an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army, during a press conference. “This professional analysis is based on intelligence, operational systems, and aerial images,” he explained.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said yesterday that at least 200 people were killed at the Al-Ahli al-Arab hospital in Gaza City. Other estimates suggest a higher toll.

The Israel Defense Forces released an audio document of an intercepted telephone conversation between two Hamas members. In this conversation, the two men talk about an Islamic Jihad rocket that was fired from a nearby cemetery and hit a hospital in Gaza.

Listen to the conversation below:

Person 1: I’m telling you that this is the first time we’ve seen a missile like this fall and that’s why we say it belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Person 2: What?

Person 1: They say it belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Person 2: Is it from us?

Person 1: It seems so!

Person 2: Who says that?

Person 1: They say that the shrapnel from the missile does not look like it came from an Israeli missile but from a local missile.

Person 2: What are you saying [name]?

(Silence)

Person 2: For God’s sake, couldn’t it have exploded somewhere else?

Person 1: It was fired from the cemetery behind the hospital.

Person 2: What?

Person 1: They fired it from the cemetery behind al Ma’amadani Hospital, the launch failed and it fell on them.

Person 2: Is there a cemetery behind?

Individual 1: Yes, al Ma’amadani is inside the building complex.

“There was no army fire from land, sea, or air that hit the hospital,” Hagari said. “Our radar systems detected rockets fired by the terrorists from Gaza at the time of the explosion and analysis of their trajectory shows that the rockets were fired near the hospital,” he added.

Meanwhile, the army spokesman told reporters that the hospital buildings were not structurally damaged and there were no craters consistent with an airstrike.

He accused Hamas of exaggerating the number of casualties and added that the Palestinian movement could not have known so quickly what caused the explosion. Hagari even noted that some 450 rockets fired from Gaza in the past 11 days have landed inside the enclave.