Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike for the explosion. Gaza's health ministry said yesterday 471 Palestinians had been killed, and 314 wounded.
Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denies blame.
Forensic reviewing of opensource videos and news broadcasts has given a clearer picture of what happened that night. Footage shows the impact on the hospital occurring at 18.59 local time, with a massive orange plume visible in the sky, engulfing the building.
A video, broadcast by Al Jazeera and verified by the Guardian, appears to show an airborne weapon following a rising trajectory over Gaza and bursting into flames in mid-air. Moments later an explosion is seen at al-Ahli Arab hospital. The first local reports of the blast started to come in between 19.00 and 19.20.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, the Telegram channels of Hamas's armed wing, al-Qassam brigades, were posting updates of a series of attempted strikes into Israel.
Updates at 19.00 described "bombardment by rockets" on the Israeli city of Ashdod. Another, three minutes later, described an attack on Tel Aviv.
At 20.14, Hamas gave a further update, describing how the al-Qassam brigades had targeted the northern Israeli city of Haifa with an R160 missile.
This was followed immediately by a press statement blaming Israel for the hospital blast, which the group called "a horrific massacre".
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