Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing early Wednesday morning that no Israeli strike, either by air, land or sea, occurred near Al-Ahli Arab Hospital at the time of the deadly explosion. He added that drone footage, radar information and a recording of Gaza militants indicate a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket was responsible.
He said the Israeli military would soon publish the radar info, footage and a recording of militants in Gaza assigning blame to Islamic Jihad, a group aligned with Hamas. All the information, Hagari said, would be given to President Biden as part of a "full briefing" when the U.S. leader arrives in Israel Wednesday.
Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour accused Israel of carrying out the strike, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a liar for blaming the strike on the armed group Islamic Jihad. “Now they change the story to try to blame the Palestinians. It is a lie,” Mansour said during a press conference at the U.N. headquarters.
Edit: From the IDF’s official Telegram Channel
IDF: A failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization hit the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City
Attached is a video from the IAF system that captured the area around the hospital before and after the failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization: https://bit.ly/3M5oQMI
IDF: Following the briefing by the IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari on the failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization that hit the hospital in Gaza City:
Attached is the briefing: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC1810202362
Attached is a recording of a conversation between Hamas operatives regarding the Islamic Jihad failed rocket launch on the hospital on October 17, 2023: https://bit.ly/3S4xqiG
Attached is a visual analysis following the IAF’s examination on the subject: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC1810156854
Attached is an infographic of all the failed rocket launches in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/1810202309876543672
Attached is a photograph from the IDF launch identification system on the subject: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC18102023984
Following the recording that was sent out, attached is a transcript of the conversation between Hamas operatives: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/ANC181020238465
I'd be very interested to see their evidence, especially given the initial claim that they hit the hospital because HAMAS were there. The video that I saw shows a fuck off huge explosion, and I'd be very surprised to learn that a Jihadist group's rocket did that. AFAIK, most of their rockets are anti-personnel and anti-armor grade, stuff a little like what the HIMARS carries, not shit that's going to level half a hospital in one go. I mean, unless they're just casually rocking Tomahawk cruise missiles or something, it just seems like a big reach.
Other than things that could be explosive in a hospital normally (O2 canisters), Hamas has been known to use hospitals to store munitions and launch rocket strikes in the past. While I'm not saying "Israel definitely didn't do it" I don't think it's out of the question or even unlikely that it genuinely wasn't an Israeli strike
O2 doesn't explode. I've done 13 years in EMS, handled the stuff daily, tried it. O2 doesn't and wouldn't explode like that. Concentrated O2 WILL make a fire burn MUCH more aggressively, but not explode.
Confirmed
That it was a rocket?
That under normal conditions o2 won't explode, it will just make intense fire. It's a bit hard to find info on if it explodes if a rocket hits it.
Regardless, the crater shows the rocket didn't hit the hospital anyway.
I'm telling you, it shouldn't explode even if a rocket hits it. You can get pure O2 as hot as you like and it won't burn; kick it, shock it, pressurize it, stick it in a stew, it won't burn. Oxygen is a necessary part of combustion, but O2 itself does not combust; it has to have something to chemically interact with, like Hydrogen or Carbon. A lot of your explosives are things that already have oxygen built in to the molecule, IIRC, and can therefore release all of its energy all at once, where materials like Gasoline (and a lot of rocket fuels that I'm aware of) that don't have built-in oxygen will only burn as fast as oxygen can get to the molecules.
Maybe you're thinking of something like a BLEVE, which I suppose something similar is possible if there was a bunch of rocket fuel that functionally got vaporized on impact to make a fuel-air mix, but I don't think that's typically how it goes with rocket impacts.
Anyway, yes, the crater seems to be in a parking lot, so that's that.
Of course, both possibilities exist. With the information we have currently, it's not possible to definitively say either way.
The other possibility being it was Israel but was a mistake.