A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded people and other Palestinians seeking shelter late on Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run health ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by a group of Palestinian militants for the incident that led to shock and consternation from leaders around the world.
At least 471 people were killed, the ministry said.
As rage spread through the region because of the hospital carnage and over US President Joe Biden seeming to agree with the Israeli characterisation in his first comments during a trip to the Middle East on Wednesday in hopes of stopping the war from spreading.
The explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital left gruesome scenes. Video that the Associated Press confirmed was from the hospital showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. The grass around them was strewn with blankets, school backpacks and other belongings.
In an English-language briefing televised shortly before Biden landed in Israel for a solidarity visit, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation had "confirmed that there was no IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fire from the land, sea or air that hit the hospital".
"The evidence - which we are sharing with you all - confirms that the explosion at the hospital in Gaza was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired," said Hagari.
He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli Hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.
Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire. "Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead," he said, according to Reuters.
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