The deadly shooting at a hospital in Gaza, for which Israel and the Palestinian armed movements blame each other, left “a few dozen dead” rather than hundreds, a head of a European intelligence agency told AFP on Wednesday.
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“There are not 200 or even 500 dead, but a few dozen, probably between 10 and 50,” said this source, speaking on condition of anonymity, who also believes, according to the “strong indications,” that “Israel probably didn’t do this.” “. ” of information available to its services.
On Wednesday afternoon, the health ministry of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, reported a death toll of at least 471.
“The building was not destroyed,” this European source added. And “the hospital was probably previously evacuated, like a number of hospitals in northern Gaza,” after the Israeli army issued an order to that effect, he stressed, also ensuring that “no evidence” confirms the fact that hundreds of people were in the parking lot where the strike ended.
Palestinians and Israelis blame each other for the tragedy.
Hamas immediately condemned an Israeli attack. Israel, for its part, denied being behind the shooting and attributed it to a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally.
“There are quite a few missiles that are being launched,” argued this senior European intelligence official on Wednesday evening.
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The United States on Wednesday invoked its own intelligence community to support the Jewish state’s move beyond the cause, including through its President Joe Biden, who visited Israel.
“We continue to gather information, but our position today, based on analysis of aerial images, intercepted communications and freely available information, is that Israel is not responsible for the Gaza hospital explosion,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for American National Security Council, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).