World
Researcher Explains Why Israel Might Not Be Behind Gaza Hospital Attack
Screengrab from the aerial video of the Gaza' al-Ahli hospital released by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson blamed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for a strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, claiming that more than 500 civilians were killed.
However, the IDF denied these allegations, alleging that debris from a misfired rocket from Gaza, belonging to the terrorist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), hit Al-Ahli Hospital.
In the aftermath of this incident, the Jordanian government made the decision to cancel United States President Joe Biden's scheduled visit to the Middle East, during which he was slated to hold meetings with various Arab leaders, as well as a visit to Israel. Subsequently, President Biden has arrived in Israel.
Nathan shared photographic evidence of the parking lot at Al-Ahli Hospital, which sustained the most significant damage.
Nathan states that vehicles within 10 metres of the impact site remain largely undamaged, and buildings positioned 20 metres away exhibit minimal harm.
Nathan further compared the observed damage with the imagery released by the IDF, suggesting that the damage to the roof, located 30-45 metres away from the impact site, appears consistent with damage caused by an object breaking apart midair.
However, he emphasises that these observations do not conclusively prove that this damage resulted from debris from a misfired PIJ rocket fired from inside Gaza.
Notably, the photos from Ashkelon show a lack of cratering, similar to the situation in the hospital attack.
Contrasting this with Israeli air-strikes, Nathan states that, "Israeli airstrikes in Gaza tend to leave a much larger crater and cause a lot more damage, they also almost always leave big deposits of concrete dust after striking a structure."
To counter the claim that more than 500 civilians were killed in this explosion, Nathan compared the area of the parking lot where cars burned (identified as 228 square metres) with the damage resulting from truck bomb attacks in Baghdad (350 killed), Mogadishu (500 killed), and another attack in Mogadishu (125 killed).
Swarajya could not independently verify the claims made by the researcher.
