Gaza City suffers further destruction as several people seeking refuge in a Greek Orthodox church are killed in an explosion.
According to Hamas reports, the 12th-century Church of Saint Porphyry was hit in a strike that caused “great damage” and “many casualties.”
The attack came just days after an explosion at al-Ahli hospital that killed up to 300 people and sparked a toxic blame game between Israel, Hamas and their allies.
In a statement, Hamas said Israel had attacked the church, although this has not been independently confirmed at this time. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, at least two women appeared to have died and many more were injured in the attack.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said attacks on the church were “a war crime.”
A woman cries in front of the Greek Orthodox Church after an Israeli attack in Gaza City, Gaza on October 20, 2023
Gaza City suffers further destruction as several people seeking refuge in a Greek Orthodox church are killed in an explosion
Personnel carry an injured civilian to the scene of destruction following an Israeli attack on the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City
US intelligence agencies have found that Israel is “probably not” responsible for Tuesday’s explosion at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.
According to an unclassified assessment sent to Capitol Hill by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “only minor structural damage to the hospital” was reported after earlier reports suggested the explosion had “torn through” the entire building.
“Israel probably did not bomb Gaza hospital: We believe Israel was not responsible for an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians yesterday.” [17 October] at Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip,” said the assessment obtained by CNN.
“Our assessment is based on available reports, including intelligence information, missile activity and open source videos and images of the incident,” it said.
U.S. intelligence also estimated that the total number of deaths from the hospital explosion was at the “lower end of the range of 100 to 300,” a lower number than the figures initially cited by Hamas of more than 500.
The intelligence services “only observed slight structural damage to the hospital,” there was no visible damage to the main hospital building and no impact craters were created, the assessment said.
“We see only minor damage to the roofs of two buildings near the main hospital building, but both buildings remained intact,” the assessment said.
The aerial photo shows people standing in front of destroyed cars on the grounds of the Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday
The bodies of Palestinians killed in an explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital are gathered in the front yard of Al-Shifa Hospital on Tuesday
U.S. intelligence released its first assessment Wednesday that Israel was not responsible after President Joe Biden publicly stated while in Israel that the attack appeared to be “the result of a misguided rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.” “.
Earlier today, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Palestinian authorities of lying about the death toll from Tuesday’s explosion.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said “hundreds” of Palestinians were killed when the explosion erupted at the hospital around 7pm on Tuesday evening, before later releasing an official toll of 471.
But Israeli spokesman Lior Haiat said this morning that Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies believed the number of victims was fewer than 100, putting the number at just “several dozen.”
A European secret service told the AFP news agency: “There were not 200 or even 500 dead, more likely it was between 10 and 50.”
It is the latest point of contention in a bitter war of words between Israel and Palestine, with each side accusing the other of being responsible for the explosion.
The Israel Defense Forces yesterday presented a series of evidence that they claim proves that a misfiring rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) – an independent jihadist group – was behind the explosion.
Evidence presented by Israeli forces included an audio clip of suspected Hamas terrorists confirming that the rocket came from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a video showing the rocket in question failing over Gaza, and images A bird’s eye view of the explosion site, which were not present, but according to an IDF spokesman, they have features consistent with an Israeli airstrike.
Meanwhile, Israel’s enemies – Hamas, PIJ, Hezbollah and Iran – insist that the IDF was behind the devastation and vow revenge. Anger erupted across the Muslim world yesterday as protesters took to the streets in cities from Tripoli to Tehran to demonstrate against Israel.
The Jordanian foreign minister said: “In this part of the world, no one believes (Israel’s) narrative… the only way for people to have a different narrative would be if there was an independent international investigation with impeccable evidence that it was not Israel. “
Several experts and analysts who weighed in on the issue appeared to broadly agree with Israel’s assessment that a misfired rocket fired from Gaza caused the tragedy, but many cautioned that it was too early to say for sure can.
Israeli Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari speaks to the press from the Kirya, headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023
This image provided by Maxar Technologies on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 shows a general view of al-Ahli Hospital after an explosion in Gaza City
Injured Palestinian child taken to Al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza, October 17, 2023
Speaking to the media on Wednesday morning, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari showed a series of images, satellite photos and intelligence documents that he said proved that the damage caused at the hospital could not possibly have been caused by an Israeli attack.
He explained that the images showed that there was no structural damage to the buildings surrounding Al-Ahli Hospital, no craters in the adjacent parking lot and no debris to suggest an airstrike, meaning a direct hit an Israeli missile would have caused far more destruction.
“The walls remain intact.” There are no craters in the parking lot. “These are the characteristics that show that it was not aerial munitions that hit the parking lot,” he concluded.
He also pointed to images that he said showed shrapnel on the roofs of nearby buildings, suggesting the missile disintegrated in mid-air and sprayed its debris over a larger area.
Other images later shared widely on social media showed some small craters measuring two to three feet in diameter in the parking lot outside the hospital.
Satellite images of the accident scene released this morning showed damage to the hospital grounds and parking lot, but most buildings were still standing.
This comes after Israeli officials released a video yesterday showing how a rocket that was said to be heading toward Israel from Gaza appeared to have a problem and suddenly changed course.
The projectile can be seen floating through the air before deviating from its original trajectory. Seconds later, the flames from its engines sparkle even brighter before going out completely.
The IDF argued that an Israeli attack would have caused craters like those seen in previous airstrikes. A spokesman said shrapnel on the roofs of nearby buildings and minimal damage to the parking lot next to the blast suggested an Israeli airstrike was not responsible
Israel also released a radar map of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket attacks, as well as a video of the moment a rocket said to be hurtling toward Israel from Gaza appears to have a problem and suddenly changes course before burning out
People react in the area of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on October 18, 2023, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion for which Israeli and Palestinian officials blame each other
In the darkness, it is not clear whether the rocket broke up or simply lost its trajectory.
But moments later, two explosions occur in the city below – the result of what Israel claims was the rocket falling back to earth and hitting the hospital in Gaza City.
Several other videos from different distances and angles showed what appeared to be rockets flying over Gaza as the hospital explosion lit up the night sky.
The IDF later shared a map of radar data that showed a volley of rockets from a PIJ site flying past the hospital, suggesting that one of those rockets misfired and landed on the site.
And on Wednesday afternoon, a video clip broadcast on Israeli channel 12 News appeared to show a volley of rockets being fired before explosions rocked what was believed to be a medical center.