Israel blames Islamic Jihad for Gaza hospital blast that killed nearly 500

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A woman cries while holding a pillow as she stands amidst debris outside the site of the Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza on Oct. 18, 2023. (AFP)
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The Israeli air strike at Al-Ahli hospital was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since launching an unrelenting bombing campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack. Above, an area of Al-Ahli hospital hit by the strike. (Reuters)
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Updated 19 October 2023
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Israel blames Islamic Jihad for Gaza hospital blast that killed nearly 500

  • Islamic Jihad however says ‘accusations promoted by the enemy are baseless’
  • British intelligence services analyzing evidence to independently establish facts about deadly blast

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Wednesday has denied involvement in an explosion that killed hundreds of people at a Gaza City hospital and that the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, has blamed the blast on Israel. But Israel said it was a result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the enclave.

At least 471 people were killed and more than 300 others wounded by the strike on the Gaza hospital, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Wednesday.

“The death toll of the largest and most violent massacre committed by the criminal Israeli occupation inside the Baptist Hospital reached 471 martyrs, and 28 critical cases remain, in addition to 314 people with various injuries,” the ministry said in a statement.

In an English-language briefing, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation had “confirmed that there was no IDF (Israel Defense Forces) fire from the land, sea or air that hit the hospital.”

He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike.

“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,” Hagari said.

“Our radar system tracked missiles fired by terrorists in Gaza at the time of the explosion and the trajectory analysis of the rockets shows the rockets were fired in close proximity to the hospital.”

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.

Hagari also accused Hamas of inflating the number of casualties from the explosion and said it could not know as quickly as it claimed what had caused the blast.

The death toll from the hospital explosion was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence, triggering protests in the occupied West Bank and in the wider region, including in Jordan and Turkiye.

Hagari said some 450 rockets fired from Gaza had fallen short and landed inside the Strip within the last 11 days.

“We have intelligence about communication between terrorists talking about rockets misfiring,” Hagari said, without elaborating.

Islamic Jihad earlier denied Israel’s claim that it was behind the deadly blast at Al-Ahli hospital. It accused Israel of “trying hard to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed.”

“The accusations promoted by the enemy are baseless,” Islamic Jihad said, adding that the group “does not use places of worship or public facilities, especially hospitals, as military centers or weapons stores.”

The group said details such as “the angle of the bomb’s fall and the extent of destruction it left behind” confirm it was similar to Israeli strikes.

Islamic Jihad is a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often cooperates with Hamas in their shared struggle against Israel.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to offer condolences over a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital and voice support for Palestinians’ “legitimate aspirations,” the State Department said Wednesday.

Blinken, who was in Amman on a regional tour, spoke late Tuesday by telephone with Abbas “to express profound condolences for the civilian lives lost in the explosion” at the Gaza hospital, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

British intelligence services are analyzing evidence to independently establish the facts about Tuesday’s deadly blast at a Gaza hospital, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday.

“We should not rush to judgments before we have all the facts,” Sunak told lawmakers.

“Our intelligence services have been rapidly analyzing the evidence to independently establish the facts. We are not in a position at this point to say more than that.”

Israeli account deletes post on hospital strike 

Hanania Naftali, the official digital spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote in a tweet on his account on the “X” platform, Tuesday evening, that Israeli forces have attacked the hospital because they believed it was harboring a base for Hamas militants.

However, he quickly deleted it later and replaced it with a clarification, in which he claimed that an error had occurred, as he wrote that what he said earlier was based on  a report by Reuters News Agency that falsely claimed that Israel had bombed the hospital.


Greek tanker crippled by Houthi rebels starts oil transfer

Updated 3 sec ago
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Greek tanker crippled by Houthi rebels starts oil transfer

ATHENS: A Greek oil tanker crippled by Yemen’s Houthi militants and towed to avert an environmental disaster began transferring its cargo of over a million barrels on Thursday, the state-run ANA news agency said.
The Sounion caught fire and lost power after being attacked on August 21 off the coast of Hodeidah, a Houthi-held port city.
The following day its 25-strong crew was rescued. The rebels claimed to have detonated charges on the ship’s deck, sparking new fires.
ANA said the Sounion had begun transferring its cargo of 150,000 tons of crude to another tanker, Delta Blue, at a “safe anchorage” in the port of Suez.
“The vessel is at Suez, and as it’s at a safe anchorage, we are no longer monitoring it,” a source at Greece’s merchant marine ministry told AFP.
Citing ministry sources, ANA said the operation began on Thursday and will last between three and four weeks.
In September, EU maritime safety body Aspides said the Sounion was not under its protection at the time of the attack.
The ship’s original course “was a bit of a mystery,” the ministry source told AFP. “We were told it was heading from Iraq to Singapore. If that were the case, how did it end up in the Red Sea?“
The operation to tow the vessel to safety in September required a tugboat escorted by three frigates, helicopters and a special forces team, ANA said.
Had the vessel broken up or exploded, it could have caused an oil spill four times larger than that caused by the Exxon Valdez in 1989 off Alaska, experts had warned.
The EU naval force was formed in February to protect merchant vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by Houthis.
The Houthis have waged a campaign against international shipping to show solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
They have been firing drones and missiles at ships in the vital commercial route, saying they are targeting vessels linked to Israel, the US and Britain.
The United States, with the support of allies led by Britain, has carried out repeated air strikes on rebel bases in Yemen.

Lebanon media says UN peacekeepers hurt in Israeli strike

Updated 07 November 2024
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Lebanon media says UN peacekeepers hurt in Israeli strike

  • National News Agency: ‘Enemy aircraft targeted a car in Sidon near the army checkpoint’
  • Vehicles from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force were in the ‘same lane’ during the raid

SIDON, Lebanon: UN peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded on Thursday in an Israeli strike near their vehicle at the entrance to the southern city of Sidon, the official National News Agency said.
“Enemy aircraft targeted a car in Sidon near the army checkpoint,” NNA said, adding vehicles from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force were in the “same lane” during the raid, which led to injuries among its members who were receiving treatment at the scene.


Hezbollah does not pin ceasefire hopes on any US administration, lawmaker says

Updated 07 November 2024
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Hezbollah does not pin ceasefire hopes on any US administration, lawmaker says

BEIRUT: Hezbollah welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on any particular US administration, Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Al-Moussawi said on Thursday, when asked about Donald Trump’s election victory.


France sees ‘window’ to end Gaza, Lebanon wars after Trump win

Updated 07 November 2024
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France sees ‘window’ to end Gaza, Lebanon wars after Trump win

JERUSALEM: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday in Jerusalem he saw prospects for ending Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon after Donald Trump was elected US president.
“I believe a window has opened for putting an end to the tragedy in which Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region have been immersed since October 7” last year, Barrot told reporters in Jerusalem.
Speaking alongside outgoing Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Barrot cited Trump’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars” as well as Israel’s recent “tactical successes.”
Barrot said he hoped a “diplomatic solution” would emerge “in the coming weeks.”
“Force alone will not be enough to guarantee Israel’s security,” he said, adding that “military success could not be a substitute for a political perspective.”
“It is time to move toward a deal that would allow for the liberation of all hostages, a ceasefire and the mass entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to prepare for the day after.”
Barrot said “Israel has the right to defend itself” but pointed to “colonization,” “humanitarian aid restrictions” and “the continuation of air strikes in north Gaza” as risk factors for Israel’s security.
Barrot is expected to speak with Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas and his prime minister, Muhammad Mustafa


Israel signs $5.2 billion deal to acquire 25 F-15 fighter jets from Boeing

Updated 07 November 2024
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Israel signs $5.2 billion deal to acquire 25 F-15 fighter jets from Boeing

  • The $5.2 billion agreement was part of a broader package of US aid
  • Delivery of the new F-15IA aircraft will begin in 2031

JERUSALEM: The Israeli defense ministry said on Thursday it had signed an agreement to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing Co.
It said the $5.2 billion agreement was part of a broader package of US aid approved by the US administration and Congress earlier this year and included an option for 25 additional aircraft.
Delivery of the new F-15IA aircraft will begin in 2031, with 4-6 aircraft to be supplied annually, it said.
The aircraft will be equipped with weapons systems integrated with existing Israeli weapons as well as having increased range and payloads.
“These advantages will enable the Israeli Air Force to maintain its strategic superiority in addressing current and future challenges in the Middle East,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This F-15 squadron, alongside the third F-35 squadron procured earlier this year, represents a historic enhancement of our air power and strategic reach — capabilities that proved crucial during the current war,” the director general of the defense ministry, Eyal Zamir, said in the statement.
Zamir said that the government has secured procurement agreements worth nearly $40 billion since the onset of the war in Gaza that began Oct. 7, 2023.
“While focusing on immediate needs for advanced weaponry and ammunition at unprecedented levels, we’re simultaneously investing in long-term strategic capabilities,” he said.
For Boeing, the F-15 agreement is the second major deal this year. In August, flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines, signed a deal with Boeing for the purchase of up to 31 737 MAX aircraft worth as much as $2.5 billion, beating out rival Airbus.
Ido Nehushtan, president of Boeing Israel, said the company’s relationship dates back to Israel’s establishment and “will continue working with the US and Israeli governments to deliver the advanced F-15IA aircraft through standard military procurement channels.”