Yossi Schwartz, ISL the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 22.10.2023
Q: While the Palestinians accuse Israel, Israel says that the death was caused by the Islamic Jihad. Who can we believe?
A: You don’t have to believe anyone only analyze the published versions and the known facts
Q: Israel says that it does not kill civilians on purpose can we believe it?
A: In the wars in 2008, 2012, and 2014, the World Health Organization reported that Israeli missiles, airstrikes, and tank assaults damaged or destroyed more than 200 health facilities and more than 150 ambulances. More than 30 health workers were killed on duty, more that 175 of them were injured.
Q: But does Israel hit hospitals?
A: In the war on Gaza in 2023, “the toll in lives and availability of health care has been made worse by 30 incidents of violence against health facilities, ambulances, and health workers in Gaza) in the first five days of war. By the end of the first week, 10 health workers in Gaza had been killed, including four Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics in one airstrike. After Beit Hanoun Hospital in northern Gaza was damaged, it had to suspend services, leaving the town’s 36,000 residents without a hospital.” [1]
Israel demanded that the people of North Gaza should leave to the south if they want to live. At the same time Israel destroyed whole neighborhoods and fired on hospitals including Al Ahli even before the blast on October 17.
Q: Israel says that the Islamic Jihad unit hiding in the cemetery behind the hospital used a racket that hit the hospital. Can it be?
A: No, for the simple reason that searches by journalists did not find such a cemetery behind the hospital. Not only this but forensic reviewing of open-source videos and news broadcasts have given a clearer picture of what happened on Tuesday night.
“They show the impact on the hospital occurring at 6.59pm local time, with a massive orange plume visible in the dark horizon, engulfing the building in the evening of Tuesday the 17 of October. The Islamic Jihad announced at 7:09 that their rackets and missiles are shooting at Israel.” [2]
In Addition, the Israeli spokesperson for the army says that the missile of the Islamic Jihad hit a garage while the blast was in the courtyard of the Hospital.
Q: Experts say that the crater is not consistent with an airstrike, it is more likely to be a weapon that failed and released its payload over a wide area.
A: “The crater is consistent with a JDAM aerial bomb. The hole on the ground occurred from kinetic energy.” [3] Most likely from ammunition that exploded.
Q: Experts say that even if the crater was caused by a JDAM it will not kill so many people and most likely between 100-200 at most.
A: The blast that killed close to 500 people, many of them children, was caused by the explosion of the ammunition after it was hit by a JDAM or artillery.
Q: Is there any connection between the bombing of the old Greek church that killed many people and the bombing of the hospital?
A: Yes, it is the same method aimed at wiping out Gaza and committing genocide. Israel did not report it on the first day but it could not hide it for long as it killed relatives of a former member of the congress Justin Amash who said on Friday that several of his relatives had been killed when a Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip was hit overnight by an Israeli air strike.
[1] https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/14/gaza-israel-hospitals-health-care-warzones/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/al-ahli-arab-hospital-piecing-together-what-happened-as-israel-insists-militant-rocket-to-blame
[3] Ibid