U.S. intelligence said Wednesday that evidence shows Israel was “not responsible” for the explosion at a Gaza hospital, but that information was still being collected.
The assessment is “based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Wednesday in a social media post.
There have been conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Hamas terrorist officials quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike, which the mainstream media quickly reported.
Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another Islamic terror group operating in Gaza.
The Islamic Jihad denies responsibility.
Observers pointed out that Hamas had purposefully bombed an Israeli hospital, the Barzilai Medical Center, on October 11 — an attack that received almost zero mainstream media coverage.
The Child Development Center at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon suffered a direct hit by a rocket launched from Gaza. On normal days, the center also treats Palestinian kids from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/yYHuYzaHk1
— Ariel Oseran (@ariel_oseran) October 11, 2023
In 2019, Hamas bombed the Maternity Ward of the same hospital.
מחלקת יולדות בבית החולים ברזילי באשקלון
Barzilai Medical Center Maternity Ward in Ashkelon pic.twitter.com/ljwFdk79Kp
— נאור יחיא (@NaorIhia) October 17, 2023
The Associated Press contributed to this article.