Israel blames Islamic Jihad for bombing Gaza hospital

The Israeli Army said Tuesday that the explosion that killed 500 Palestinians at a hospital in Loop was due to a failed rocket launch by militiamen of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) towards Israel, while the authorities of Hamas They blame Israeli forces for the attack.

An Israeli Army spokesman said:“Multiple intelligence sources indicate that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed launch of the rocket that hit the hospital.”

“An analysis of the Israeli Army’s operational systems indicates that terrorists fired a volley of rockets in Gaza that passed very close to the Al Ahli Hospital at the time it was hit,” an Israeli military spokesman said in a statement.

This afternoon, some 2,000 civilians were taking refuge in the health center, belonging to the Anglican Church and in the center of Gaza City, when an explosion killed at least 500 people in what is the largest massacre in the Strip. after five wars between Palestinian militias and Israel since 2008.

The Islamist movement Hamas, which de facto controls the enclave, accused the Israeli Army of carrying out a “horrible massacre” that ““He left hundreds of victims in a crime of genocide.”

For its part, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), with limited power in the occupied West Bank, also accused Israel of committing “a horrible crime in a genocidal war”and its prime minister, Mohamed Shtayeh, urged the UN Security Council to end the feud, and criticized “the countries that support Israel.”

In past war escalations, Palestinian militias launched rockets at Israel that fell inside Gaza, and according to Israel and local media, Islamic Jihad launched projectiles that even killed Palestinians in previous clashes, although there is no precedent for projectiles that caused hundreds of deaths as Today’s.

Until this afternoon’s incident, it was also unknown whether the Palestinian militias had an arsenal capable of causing this level of damage, in an explosion with such a level of deaths that it could seem more typical of a missile.

Israeli forces have bombed Gaza incessantly in the last eleven days, since the war with Israel broke out following the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7 that left at least 1,400 dead in Israeli territory.

For their part, Israel’s air attacks on the Strip have caused at least 3,000 deaths, most of them civilians and almost two-thirds of them women and children.

Islamic Jihad is the second group with the largest military strength in Gaza after Hamas, and in August 2022 and May 2023 it fought alone against Israel in two war escalations lasting several days.

Today’s massacre occurs hours before the planned visit to Israel tomorrow of the American president, Joe Biden, who until now has closed ranks with Israel and supported “your right to defend yourself”.