The Israel Defense Forces released drone footage showing that the explosion that killed hundreds of people at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip was not caused by an Israeli bombardment, the IDF says, saying it would have left a huge crater , the Times of Israel notes.

The Israeli military said it hit more than 500 targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, with the death toll exceeding 1,100.Photo: Mahmud HAMS / AFP / Profimedia Images

According to Palestinian health officials from Hamas, the images show the parking lot of the hospital where the explosion took place, killing hundreds of people.

The video shows that there was a big fire in the area of ​​the explosion, but there is no crater. The Israeli military says Israeli strikes usually leave large holes in the ground.

Drone footage also shows shrapnel falling on the roofs of nearby buildings, which were left mostly intact.

Palestinian officials blamed the Israeli airstrikes for a blow to morale. But the Israel Defense Forces “vehemently” denied any involvement in the attack on the hospital, blaming instead an “accidental rocket launch” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a rival Islamist militant group in Gaza.

Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was home to thousands of displaced people on Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement. Many victims are still under the rubble, he added.

At least 500 people were killed, according to Palestinian officials

Palestinian officials said at least 500 people were killed in the attack, according to Al Jazeera, which said it could not independently verify the information.

“An analysis of operational systems by the Israel Defense Forces (Israeli Army) shows that a barrage of rockets was launched by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” the Prime Minister said Israel – said Benjamin Netanyahu in a post on the social network.

“Information from several sources that we have indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed launch of a rocket that hit a hospital in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that rockets fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad missed the hospital in a strike he said hit the medical facility’s parking lot.

Hagari, who denies the death toll, claimed there was no direct hit to the hospital and said military drone footage showed “some kind of hit in the parking lot.”

He said the military had conducted an Israeli air force operation in the area around the time of the hospital explosion, “but it was with a different type of munition that does not … match the images (of the hospital) that we have.”

Another spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, told CNN that the military had intercepted a conversation in which the militants admitted there had been a failed missile launch. According to him, the military will publish the recording of the conversation, Reuters reports.

Islamic Jihan denies

Islamic Jihad denied that any of its rockets were involved in the hospital blast, saying there was no activity in or around Gaza City at the time.

Islamic Jihad, which is supported by Iran, took part in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and, like Hamas, launched numerous rocket salvos at Israel.

“The Zionist enemy is doing everything it can to avoid responsibility for the brutal carnage it has committed by bombing the Arab Baptist National Hospital in Gaza, by the usual fabrication of lies, and by pointing the finger at the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.” the Islamist group said.

“Therefore, we declare that the accusations made by the enemy are false and baseless,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad added.

The attack on the hospital, which killed hundreds of people, was condemned by several countries on the eve of the visit of US President Joseph Biden to Israel. Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for a meeting of the UN Security Council, clashes broke out on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

The UN said on Tuesday that one of its schools had been hit by Israeli shelling, where at least 4,000 people were hiding. The department reported that six people were killed and dozens were injured as a result of the attack. The Israeli military said it was investigating the information.