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Confusion still reigns over the cause of the explosion at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on October 17. Hamas points to an Israeli missile, while the Israeli armed forces claim that the explosion was caused by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. Here’s what we know based on the images filmed at the time of the attack and its aftermath.
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5 min
Two days after the explosion at Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital, Israeli authorities and Palestinian groups are passing the blame back and forth. Hamas accuses Israel of bombing the hospital, claiming that the alleged strike was “carried out using American military arsenal available only to the occupier (Israel)”. According to the Gazan Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled territory, at least 471 people were killed in the explosion.
The Israeli Defence Forces countered the accusation using satellite images and videos shared widely online to maintain that the explosion was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket.
Joe Biden, on a visit to Israel the day after the attack, also supported the Israeli version: “Based on the information we’ve seen to date, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” the US president declared, asserting that these conclusions were based on a US assessment of culpability from intelligence sources.
But what is the truth? To date, numerous images posted online have helped to reconstruct the sequence of events.
A misfired rocket?
At 6:59pm (local time), while the Qatari channel Al Jazeera was filming Gaza City from the Zeitoun district in the northern part of Gaza, the camera picked up what appeared to be a rocket that deviated from its trajectory and exploded in mid-air.
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