Israel Defence Force (IDF) on Thursday refuted claims made by the Palestinian side that Israel was behind the bomb explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza. The IDF also poked holes in the claims made by Hamas that several people had been killed in the explosion.
In a video briefing, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus while reiterating the Israeli PM's statement that the Islamic Jihad was behind the explosion at the Hospital said that the preliminary analysis suggests that the "rocket" exploded in the car parking and seems like no one was killed in the incident.
While describing a video analysis, the IDF spokesperson said, "We can see that this area is quite black, this appears that there was a large fire. This is really the centre of where the rocket impacted, the impact point of the rocket. What I see here is about 15 cars that were affected by the rocket that fell, I see remains of fire, what I don't see are bodies."
IDF also questioned claims by the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza that several people had been killed in the explosion.
"If five hundred people were indeed killed here or 471 which is the latest update from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, this is just a few minutes after the fire erupted, where are all the bodies..., If so many people were killed, where are the bodies," said Lt. Col Conricus.
In his analysis, the IDF spokesperson stated that pictures clicked from the explosion site showed a huge fire, but when an Israeli bomb hits a target it makes a big crater and not a fire.
"If you have been watching the news, this is exactly what a rocket impact cited Israel looks like, that's what we see when a rocket impacts Israel. We don't see Giant creators, because it's not hundreds of pounds of bombs. We see fires, we see burnt cars and burnt stuff because when rocket lands usually they ignite a fire" the IDF stated.
Earlier, United States President Joe Biden, who arrived on Wednesday on an official visit to Tel Aviv, backed Israel's claim that the explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza seemed to have been carried out by the "other team" in reference to Gaza bases terror groups.
He also asserted that the US will make sure that Israel would get what it requires to defend itself from Hamas' attacks. "Americans are worried because we know there's this is not an easy field to navigate what you have to do, but the fact is that Israel as they respond to these attacks, it seems to me that have to continue to ensure that you have what you need to defend yourselves. And we're going to make sure that occurs as you know," Biden said.
Addressing a joint media briefing with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said, "We have to also bear in mind that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people and it has brought them only suffering."On Tuesday's explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital, Biden said he was "deeply saddened" and "outraged" and emphasised that the preliminary data says that the explosion was a result of a rocket misfired by the Islamic Jihad.
President Biden added, "I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday and based on what I've seen, It appears as though it was done by the other team, not you, but there's a lot of people out there, not sure so we got a lot of got to overcome a lot of things and also means encouraging lifesaving capacity to help the Palestinians were innocent caught in the middle of this."
Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the 13th day Israeli Air Force struck targets belonging to Hezbollah, along the Lebanon border. This the IDF said was in response to Wednesday's shooting attacks. The targets struck include an observation point facing the sea, from which anti-tank missiles were fired at Rosh HaNikra.
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