US Senate committee blames Gaza hospital attack on Hamas

 

WASHINGTON –  The United States Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded, after examining intelligence on the recent strike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, that the strike was carried out by Hamas not the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a statement on the website of Senator Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida), vice chairman of the committee has said.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, the statement said has received and reviewed intelligence related to the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.

“Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike,” the statement noted.

The information was also confirmed by unnamed US officials familiar with the intelligence, who were cited by The New York Times.

A senior Pentagon official told the newspaper that the US was confident that the strike had not been carried out by Israel.

Satellite images, open-source data and intercepted communications of Hamas members indicate that rockets launched from Palestinian militants’ positions inside the Gaza Strip had misfired and hit the hospital, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, officials interviewed by the newspaper doubt that the misfired rocket could have caused numerous deaths.

The New York Times also noted that the rocket may not have hit the hospital itself, but rather an adjacent parking facility, since the hospital building had sustained only minor damage.

On October 17, the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip was hit by a rocket and 471 people were killed and 342 more wounded in the attack.

Both the killed and wounded were people sheltering within the hospital, following intense bombing of Gaza by IDF.

Palestine put the blame on the Israeli military. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility, saying in a statement that the powerful explosion in the hospital had resulted from a misfired rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad group.

Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon all declared a period of mourning for the victims of the attack.