Israel also relies on video from a TV station in dealing with the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip. But this apparently shows a different incident. However, an Israeli airstrike on the hospital remains unlikely.
It is still unclear how the deadly explosion occurred at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City about a week ago. The Palestinians and the Israeli government blame each other. Facts are scarce, so attempts are made to recap the events using mainly photographs and video recordings. The Israeli and American sides frequently used video from the Al-Jazeera TV channel’s live broadcast to show that the cause was a bullet from Gaza. However, this video is hardly reliable as proof of this.
Al-Jazeera footage shows a projectile exploding in the air. Shortly afterwards, another explosion could be seen, probably at Al-Ahli Hospital. Official Israeli accounts posted the video several times X, several media outlets reported this. According to the Israeli interpretation, it shows a Palestinian rocket that crashed due to a malfunction and caused the explosion in the hospital.
Doubts about this version arose a few days ago. The data expert wrote on Sunday Oliver Alexandre in X, the video shows a missile fired by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Based on satellite images, he located the detonation not near the hospital, but in the border area between Gaza and Israel.
“NYT”: Explosion miles away
A New York Times (“NYT”) analysis now largely agrees with Alexander’s statements. Thus, the bullet seen in the recording exploded in the border area, approximately three kilometers from the hospital. A trajectory reconstruction also showed that the rocket in question was fired from near the Israeli city of Nahal Oz towards Gaza.
Although the NYT was unable to conclusively identify the bullet, it believes it is entirely possible that it came from an Iron Dome defense system. Such a system is located in the identified launch area. The projectile in the Al Jazeera recording was also fired at a later date than the Palestinian rockets that Israel says were responsible for the clinic explosion.
Sergej Maier of the RTL and NTV verification team initially found Israel’s explanation derived from the Al Jazeera video plausible. But then an Al-Jazeera cameraman released another video. It shows the scene from an almost identical position to the first video, but starts a little earlier. This makes it easier to see the suspected launch site. Maier concludes that the site must be much further east than it seemed.
Israel denies using Iron Dome
“The Al Jazeera video probably doesn’t show a Hamas rocket, but rather an Iron Dome rocket firing something in the border area with Gaza, but in Israeli airspace,” says Maier. The shooting in the sky and the explosion in the hospital are therefore not related. The “NYT” also assumes this. The Israeli military, however, denied to the newspaper that they had fired interceptor missiles at the time and in the area in question.
But even if the Al Jazeera video doesn’t appear to show a Palestinian rocket, that doesn’t mean it makes an Israeli attack on the hospital more likely. “NYT” writes that a few minutes before the explosion, Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets southwest of the Al-Ahli clinic. “The explosion at the hospital indicates a failed missile that missed the target by a wide margin with unused fuel,” he said.
However, the images analyzed also suggest that the Israeli bombings occurred at the same time. Explosions could be seen near the hospital. Major Nir Dinar, an Israeli military spokesman, told the NYT that the airstrikes did not put the hospital in danger. However, he did not specify how far away they were from that.
Israeli attack unlikely
The images taken after the explosion also speak out against the Israeli bombing. Instead of one or more large craters, only a smaller impact hole can be seen. An Israeli attack, as claimed by Hamas, would have resulted in even more serious damage. Hamas has not yet managed to produce any remains of Israeli ammunition.
But couldn’t a ricochet from the Israeli Iron Dome also be responsible for the explosion? Austrian Colonel Markus Reisner thinks this is unlikely. In principle, Iron Dome rockets would only target projectiles “that pose a possible threat to the Israeli side,” he told ntv.de.
The shooting usually takes place on Israeli territory. There are technical reasons for this because, according to Reisner, the defense system first needs time to calculate the trajectory of the enemy missile. After a successful launch, Iron Dome missiles typically self-destructed and did not even hit the ground.
What is certain is that the Al Jazeera video presented by Israel does not support the scenario of Palestinian responsibility for the explosion. And yet the version of a misguided rocket by Palestinian militants remains the most plausible at this point. “Even though there is still no clear evidence of what happened in the hospital parking lot, the damage can probably be attributed to a falling rocket,” data expert Alexander also writes in X.