LONDON: Footage captured seconds before the explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Oct. 17 shows that the missile that detonated in mid-air was not related to the blast, found a detailed visual analysis by The New York Times.
Citing footage broadcast by Al Jazeera, the NYT report, published Tuesday, read: “The missile seen in the video is most likely not what caused the explosion at the hospital.
“It actually detonated in the sky roughly two miles away, The Times found, and is an unrelated aspect of the fighting that unfolded over the Israeli-Gaza border that night.”
On the evening of Oct. 17, a huge blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza killed at least 470 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others, sparking international condemnation as well as protests in several Arab countries.
US President Joe Biden said that, according to the information available to him, the hospital blast appeared to have been caused by an errant rocket shot by “a terrorist group,” aligning his views with Israel’s, according to Reuters.
And while NYT’s analysis does not provide an answer to what has caused the tragedy, it challenges “one of the most-publicized pieces of evidence that Israeli officials have used to make their case.”
After analyzing several other videos related to the incident, the NYT concluded that dozens of rockets were being fired from both the Palestinian territories and Israel. The failed rocket in Al Jazeera’s video almost coincided with the blast but was unlikely to be the cause.
However, the analyzed footage also showed that Israeli bombardment was relentless, and two explosions took place close to the hospital within minutes of the deadly blast.
