News footage showing the lead-up to an explosion at the Al-Ahli Christian hospital in Gaza appears to back up the Israeli claim that the blast was the result of a rocket malfunction and not caused by an Israeli attack.
EXCLUSIVE: Channel 12 News camera records the Islamic Jihad shooting at the hospital in Gazahttps://t.co/i8DnQzUrBj@LeviYonit pic.twitter.com/tX1Knh65OeIsrael was largely blamed for the blast, which Palestinian authorities claimed killed as many as 500 people. While it was initially reported that the hospital itself was hit, footage from the day after shows the hospital relatively intact — the explosion took place in the courtyard.
Valeria Scuto, the lead Middle East analyst at Sibylline, a risk assessment company, told the outlet that one scenario in which Israel was the culprit could have been a drone strike with a Hellfire missile, which generates a significant amount of heat without leaving a large crater. However, initial unconfirmed footage of the explosion isn't consistent with that of Hellfire munition.