IDF to release more evidence to prove Israel wasn't responsible for Gaza hospital blast

Jerusalem, Oct 18

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that the country will release more evidence to prove that it was not responsible for the blast at a hospital in Gaza that claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was sheltering thousands of displaced people when it was bombed on Tuesday, adding that many victims were still under the rubble.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday night, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that Israel has already released footage captured by a UAV to international media of the blast that occurred earlier in the day.

He added that they plan to release additional intelligence of an intercepted conversation between Palestinian militants that they believe there was a rocket that had misfired.

Conricus added that the IDF went through their own systems to confirm they did not fire at that location and that there was no misfire from Israel.

The IDF official went on to say that an investigation into the blast revealed that the Islamic Jihad had fired a barrage of rockets toward northern or central Israel, and at least one of them misfired, landed on the ground and exploded.

Conricus also refuted claims that the blast could have been the result of an iron dome interception that caused the rocket to explode and land, saying this "has also been categorically denied."

"That is not the case, and we do not intercept rockets over Gaza," he told CNN.

"We have confirmed, and all of our chain of command stands behind it, that this was not an IDF strike. It was a misfired rocket by the Islamic Jihad that landed and probably caused that explosion," he said.

Israel has already briefed American military officials on this intelligence ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel on Wednesday, Conricus said.

Meanwhile, the Hamas claimed that over 500 people were killed by in the hospital bombing, CNN reported..

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” for “attacking” the hospital.

“Whoever brutally murdered our children is also murdering their children,” he added.