October 17th, 2023, Gaza Hospital Explosion

About

The October 17th, 2023, Gaza Hospital Explosion, also known as the Gaza Hospital Strike, refers to an explosion that took place at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Northern Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 17th, 2023, with the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claiming over 500 deaths consisting mostly of women and children. The cause of the explosion is strongly disputed among various parties, with the Gaza Health Ministry accusing Israel of launching an airstrike at the hospital and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stating that the explosion was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad targeting Israel. The event and initial lack of expert consensus on the cause of the blast led to widespread discussions about misinformation, disinformation, the "fog of war" and the lack of clarity and accountability regarding real-time events in Gaza.

Overview

The forced evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip starting October 12th, 2023, led a reported 6,000 Palestinians to seek shelter at the al-Alhi Arab Hospital, with many claiming to have been led there as a way to avoid Israeli airstrikes.^[1] According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the hospital was struck by Israeli rocket fire on October 14th,^[2] and according to Al-Ahli hospital officials, the hospital was struck by roof-knocking missiles prior to the explosion.^[3]

News about the explosion broke at roughly 7:20 p.m. local time,^[4] with Gaza's Health Ministry issuing a statement alleging that the explosion was caused by an Israeli air strike and that 500 people were killed from the blast.^[5] Israel later refuted the claim, stating that the Palestinian barrage was responsible for the blast, adding that the shell landed in the parking lot of the hospital.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, the death toll at the al-Alhi Arab Hospital after the October 17th blast was the highest of any single incident since the start of the Israeli-Hamas conflict in early October 2023, with Israel claiming to be unable to confirm the number of fatalities.^[6]

BBC^[7] covered the incident on October 18th, 2023, showing footage from the scene during and after the blast (seen below).

Initial reports claimed that a "fireball engulfed" the al-Alhi Arab Hospital after the blast,^[8] with British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abusittah telling Reuters that the operating room ceiling collapsed on him before he saw mangled bodies in the courtyard of the hospital where the shell reportedly landed.^[9] According to a video verified by the Associated Press, the hospital building was engulfed in fire, and the hospital grounds were strewn with body parts.^[10]

An Al Jazeera segment covering the story was reposted by X^[11] user @m7mdkurd on October 17th, stating, "The deeper we went into the hospital, the more shocking and terrifying the scene was." It is unclear if the wounded in the hospital were brought in from the explosion that took place in the parking lot of the hospital.

"It was rare to find a full body with all its parts. The deeper we went into the hospital, the more shocking and terrifying the scene was." pic.twitter.com/zoPEjEXrAX

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 17, 2023

Developments

Israel Denies Involvement In Gaza Hospital Explosion

On October 17th, 2023, Israel denied responsibility for the blast that took place at the al-Alhi Arab Hospital in northern Gaza, instead alleging that it was caused by a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket, a Palestinian militant group aligned with Hamas.^[12] Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a press conference on October 18th that Israeli intelligence concluded that the PIJ had launched a barrage of rockets near the hospital (seen below),^[13][14] but an Islamic Jihad spokesman denied responsibility.^[8]

On October 18th, the IDF^[15] then posted a video titled, "Attached is a recording of a conversation between Hamas operatives regarding the Islamic Jihad failed rocket launch on the hospital on October 17, 2023." The post gathered over 6,900 quotes and 8,000 likes in a day (seen below). The audio purportedly showed militants discussing their misfired rocket having caused the explosion.

Attached is a recording of a conversation between Hamas operatives regarding the Islamic Jihad failed rocket launch on the hospital on October 17, 2023: pic.twitter.com/mjsBPerDMe

— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 18, 2023

The aforementioned post from the IDF received pushback from some internet users claiming that the accents heard in the audio recording are inconsistent with Palestinian Arabic dialects and that Hamas does not use cellphones or real names for locations in Gaza.^[16][17] Others, however, spread the recording on platforms like X as they claimed it was proof of Islamic Jihad's involvement.^[35][36]

The official Israeli X account also published a statement claiming that the explosion at the hospital in Gaza was caused by an enemy rocket on October 18th, with footage presumed to be proof of the rocket being launched from Gaza (seen below, left).^[18] However, the post was edited to remove the video after Aric Toler, a New York Times investigative journalist, alleged^[19] that the timestamps on the video indicate that the footage was taken at least 40 minutes after the actual explosion took place (seen below, right). The IDF denies involvement with the post, attributing it solely to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[20]

Protests and Political Fallouts in the Middle East

Following initial reports of the hospital explosion, many of which accused Israel of involvement, numerous Arab leaders in the Middle East condemned Israel for the bombing.^[42] On October 17th, 2023, Jordan notably canceled a planned summit with President Biden,^[43] as riots and protests broke out in the West Bank and elsewhere in the Muslim world.^[44][45] On October 18th, police in Istanbul also prevented protesters from storming the Israeli consulate following the hospital incident.^[46]

OSINT Investigations

Various independent open-source intelligence groups analyzed available evidence in an attempt to determine the origin of the rocket that landed at al-Alhi Arab Hospital on October 17th, 2023, with GeoConfirmed^[21] posting one such analysis thread to its X profile and gathering over 34,000 likes in a day. The group concluded that the rocket had been launched by Palestinian groups and misfired mid-air before a part of it landed at the hospital in Gaza (seen below).

GeoConfirmed ISR-PAL.

A missile launched by Palestinian Groups exploded mid-air and one of the pieces fell on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital's yard.

31.504822, 34.46169

Before reacting READ our thread.https://t.co/qbpUGQk89o

1/X

— GeoConfirmed (@GeoConfirmed) October 17, 2023

Bellingcat published an investigation into the blast on October 18th as well, working to identify the crater formed by the shell that landed in the parking lot of the Gaza Hospital. The investigation found that the crater was inconsistent with the "the 500, 1000 or 2000-pound bombs used in Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs)" by Israel.^[38]

Other OSINT groups and analysts gave reports indicating that the explosion was likely caused by a rocket misfire or that it did not match previous aerial bombings by Israel, including the Washington Post's Evan Hill, analysts interviewed by The Telegraph^[22] and The Independent,^[23] as well as the OSINT team at India Today.^[24]

United States Intelligence also reported that early investigations did not indicate that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.^[25] During a meeting on October 18th with Israeli PM Netanyahu, President Biden also said he was "deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza" but added that based on what he'd seen it appeared "as though it was done by the other team, not you [Israel]" (shown below).

Other OSINT investigators pushed back on the conclusions drawn by the aforementioned groups, including X^[32] user @FSBRG in a thread posted to X on October 18th, 2023. The user claimed that Israel does use weapons, such as the drone-fired Spike, that do not leave "considerable craters" (seen below, left). A post by X^[33] user @ionacraig also speculated that the video of the explosion supposedly included the distinct sound of an air strike "whistle" (seen below, right), despite the Qassam rockets often used by Hamas also reportedly making a whistling sound.^[37]

UK's Channel 4 also published a report pushing back on Israel's narrative regarding the explosion in the Gaza hospital noting the supposedly unconvincing accents in Israel's "intercepted call" and noting how Israel seemed to point to two different locations as the source of the misfired Palestinian rocket.

Channel 4 News tears Israel's lies about the hospital bombing to shreds in less than 60 seconds pic.twitter.com/A1ccwOSkiw

— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) October 18, 2023

Online Reactions

On October 16th, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a series of posts to his X profile that were deleted following the explosion at the al-Alhi Arab Hospital. Several internet users noted what they perceived as harsh language used in the post on October 18th, such as X users @SaeedDiCaprio^[26] and @YousefMunayyer,^[27] who gathered over 130,000 and 14,000 likes each, respectively, in less than 24 hours (seen below).

On October 18th, X^[28] user @ShaykhSulaiman made a post noting the changes in the headlines for the New York Times after the explosion, gathering over 29,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Israeli influencer Hananya Naftali made and deleted a post on X announcing that the Israeli Air Force had struck a "Hamas terrorist base" in the Gaza hospital on October 18th (seen below, right).^[29]

Comedian Amy Schumer was criticized by some for her response to the explosion at the Gaza hospital after she posted an Instagram Story about an "Islamic Jihad missile killing hundreds of innocent Palestinians, as seen in a post on X^[31] by @kylietcheung, which gathered over 23,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). An October 18th post by X^[34] user @ArmandDoma also noted the changing media reports on the hospital explosion as developments unfolded (seen below, right).

Politician Reactions

On October 17th, 2023, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made a post on X^[39] condemning Israel for the Gaza Hospital blast, gathering over 23,000 quote tweets and 53,000 likes in two days, as well as a community note that read "Using geolcation from the live stream of the explosion at the hospital, it appears a misfired rocket was launched from inside Gaza" (seen below, top).

That same day, fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar made a similar tweet claiming that the IDF was responsible for the explosion on her X^[41] account, which similarly received a community note that stated, "The U.S. has collected “high confidence” intelligence showing that the explosion at a hospital compound in Gaza was caused by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not an Israeli strike" (seen below, bottom).

As the story spread, various Middle Eastern and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria and Libya condemned the explosions as attacks by Israel. However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the only Western leader to condemn Israel for the Gaza Hospital Blast, as noted by X^[30] user @DrEliDavid (seen below).

Clown Trudeau becomes the only Western leader who condemned Israel for the Gaza hospital blast, before evidence emerged that a terrorists' misfired rocket caused it 🤡

No wonder no world leader takes this clown seriously…pic.twitter.com/EL6BodyKhG

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 17, 2023

Irish President Michael D. Higgins went on record to say that the Gaza hospital explosion should be "investigated as a war crime," noting that there were "contesting versions" of what happened on Tuesday.^[40]

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External References