New information from American intelligence on the attack on the Baptist Hospital in Gaza

US intelligence officials said Tuesday they now have “high confidence” that last week’s explosion at the Arab Baptist National Hospital in Gaza was the result of a Palestinian missile and that no weapons were used Israeli, according to two reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Three officials said the intelligence community reached its conclusion after reviewing several videos and using geolocation techniques to track the Oct. 17 explosion, the Washington Post reported.

According to the New York Times, the assessment reflects a higher degree of certainty among American intelligence officials that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.

What happened?

The explosion was caused by a missile fired into Gaza, which suffered a mechanical failure mid-flight before hitting the hospital, the newspaper reported, citing officials who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

Analysts were able to track the missile’s trajectory based on video filmed from four locations.

The official said two cameras captured the flight of the missile, which analysts said was launched inside the Gaza Strip.

He explained that the missile then moved towards the northeast and about 10 seconds after its launch, its engine became unstable and malfunctioned.

He pointed out that the missile broke up and the engine hit the ground, then the warhead fell into the hospital and caused a large explosion.

Who launched the missile?

Officials said analysts were unable to confirm who launched the missile, due to a lack of information conclusively pointing to the culprit.

An American official said he had reviewed intercepted communications from Hamas fighters, who could be heard speculating that “Palestinian fighters were responsible for the rocket attack.”

An official confirmed that, using intercepted communications, they examined the speakers’ statements and speech patterns and determined that they were “affiliated with Hamas.”

In the recordings, these people seemed to agree that the missile was launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but without more conclusive information analysts were unable to move beyond a “low confidence” rating.

What is the Islamic Jihad movement and what is its relationship with Hamas?

After the deadly explosion which occurred near the Arab National Hospital (Baptist) in Gaza, both the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement exchanged accusations of responsibility for the attack. What do we know about the movement allied with Hamas ?

“We consider it reliable and real,” the official said, but the communications interception itself is not enough to more firmly attribute the missile launch to Islamic Jihad.

The official noted that the message provided by the Israeli government to the United States differs from the recording publicly released by the Israeli military.

And the number of victims?

The number of casualties reported from the raid varied widely, and officials said they were unable to provide an exact number, but they fell short of an earlier estimate that the attack had killed between 100 and 300 people.

On Tuesday, US officials said it was impossible to get an accurate count of people who had died in hospital due to a lack of independent sources.

Last week, U.S. officials estimated that between 100 and 300 people had been killed, but said the death toll was likely at the lower end of that range.

“Declassified” US intelligence report suggests Baptist Hospital death toll

Reuters cited a U.S. intelligence report, declassified on Thursday, that said the death toll from the attack that targeted Gaza’s Baptist hospital ranged “from 100 to 300 at minimum.”

Gaza’s Hamas-led Health Ministry said the death toll was 471, a figure revised downwards from the previous estimate of 500.

Days after Hamas accused Israel of bombing a hospital in Gaza city and killing hundreds of people, the Palestinian armed group has yet to provide or describe any evidence linking Israel to the explosion, and says it has failed to find the ammunition that hit the site and refused to supply it. reveal his identity, according to the New York Times. “.

Gaza’s Health Ministry also refused to reveal further details about the 471 victims, and all traces of ammunition appear to have disappeared from the site of the explosion, making it more difficult to assess its source.

US officials said only minor damage was caused to the site, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a rocket made in Gaza exploded in flight, rather than an Israeli munition hitting the hospital.

The declassified assessment does not provide any specific information about where U.S. intelligence officials believe the missile that caused the explosion was launched from within Gaza.

But the official said: “The intelligence agencies continue to investigate, and if the United States gets additional information that points in a different direction, the intelligence agencies will release it.”

Sunak: Gaza hospital explosion caused by missile ‘Most likely’

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the explosion at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday was probably caused by a missile fired from inside Gaza.

The hospital was the subject of a strike on October 16 which, according to Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra, left 471 people dead and more than 314 others injured, according to Reuters.

Israeli and Palestinian factions exchanged accusations over the attack that hit the hospital, and the Israeli military said the source of the attack that hit the hospital was a missile fired by the Islamic Jihad movement directed from the west East.

After dispute over the origin of the “Al-Maamdani” attack, a Palestinian refused to report the death toll

Western intelligence sources and analysts have doubted the validity of the death toll announced by the Palestinian authorities following the deadly explosion that occurred near the Arab national hospital “Baptist” in the Gaza Strip, estimating the number of victims in “dozens”. ,” while Palestinian officials confirmed to the “Al-Hurra” website that hundreds were killed and wounded.

Islamic Jihad denied the Israeli accusations, while Hamas and the Palestinian Authority said the attack was the result of an “Israeli raid”.

Media reported that workers at Baptist Hospital said they had “received an evacuation request from Israeli authorities” a day before the strike.

“The children were playing.” An eyewitness recounts the moments of the bombing of the Baptist hospital in Gaza

The spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, Nepal Farsakh, confirmed to the Al-Hurra website that no warning or evacuation order had reached the Arab national hospital known as “Al-Maamdani” before it was bombed by Israeli forces.

On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, resulting in more than 1,400 deaths, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to Israeli authorities.

According to the latest data released by the Israeli army on Monday, Hamas took with it 222 people “hostage, including foreigners, in the October 7 attacks”, according to the “Agence France-Presse”.

On the other hand, the Israeli bombing of Gaza, according to the Strip’s Ministry of Health, resulted in the killing of 5,791 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, including children and women.