While it would appear that the mainstream media has, in general, ardently sought to offer as balanced reporting of the Israel/Hamas conflict as possible, that certainly hasn’t always been true in regard to the blast in al-Ahli hospital in Gaza last Tuesday. Indeed, on occasion significant media misinformation and bias has been apparent.

Trusting Hamas

“More than 300 killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza hospital” was the Reuters headline, attributing the information to a “civil defence official”, concealing the fact that Hamas was its sole source of information. Many other big-name newspapers also gave full credence to Hamas’s statement, with headlines like “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say,” (The New York Times).

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, BBC correspondent Jon Donnison said it was “hard to see what else it could be other than an Israeli air strike” (under government pressure, the BBC later apologised for such remark). And Channel 4 News was determined to put the blame squarely on Israel in its disturbingly one-sided report (as it did again in a follow-up report on Friday).

News media worldwide was also quick to accept Hamas’s quickly formed figure of around 500 Palestinians being killed in the blast (numbers as high as 1,000 were even thrown around). The Gaza Health Ministry later revised the number of deaths to an official figure of 471. However, Palestinian authorities, normally quick to reveal to the watching world the massive scale of the horrific injuries caused by their enemies, were somehow reserved in parading hundreds of dead bodies and casualties in this instance. Instead, only a few dozen corpses were offered as evidence, even then with no confirmation of a verifiable link to the hospital blast.

Palestinian authorities, normally quick to reveal to the watching world the massive scale of the horrific injuries caused by their enemies, were somehow reserved in parading hundreds of dead bodies and casualties in this instance.

Remarkably, Israeli and US intelligence have since suggested the number of casualties was actually less than one hundred, putting the figure at only “several dozen”. It came as a European intelligence agency stated: “There wasn't 200 or even 500 deaths, more likely between 10 and 50.” Some continue to insist the number of deaths is higher than this, but the true figure remains unknown. 

One news source questioned how many hundreds could have been killed at “a small 19th century hospital which had a capacity of just 80 beds”. However, there are (albeit unconfirmed) claims that many hundreds of displaced people were sheltering in the courtyard when it was hit. Though, not even Al Jazeera, the Qatar-funded propaganda machine, has been able to shed more detailed insight into the incident.

The evidence

A slew of evidence has been offered, pointing to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a misfiring rocket being behind the blast:

• The images showed there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli hospital, no craters in the adjacent car park, and no debris consistent with an air strike, which would have caused far more destruction.
• Shrapnel was found on the roof of nearby buildings, suggesting the rocket fell apart in the air and sprayed its debris across a larger area.
• Video evidence suggests that a barrage of rockets was fired toward Israel from a cemetery in Gaza City at exactly 6:59 PM local time. Literally seconds later, the explosion occurred at the hospital, which is located near to the cemetery. This, also, of course, raises questions as to why a terrorist group was firing rockets from a location so close, both to a busy hospital, and to residential housing.
• A map of radar data produced by the IDF appears to show a grouping of rockets streaking past the hospital, implying one of those rockets misfired and landed on the site.
• Local video sources (including one by Al Jazeera) corroborate the IDF’s account, showing the rocket fire, then the errant rocket, descending to the ground, followed by the explosion.
• According to the IDF, this errant rocket is one of approximately 450 Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that have misfired and landed in Gaza during this war.
• The IDF investigation determined that at the time of the explosion, there were no strikes by the Israeli air force, navy, or ground forces in the area of the hospital compound.

Numerous experts and analysts weighing in on the issue largely agree with Israel's assessment that a misfiring rocket fired from Gaza caused the tragedy.

• Channel 4 News, among others, have suggested that the lack of a large crater could be explained by Israel’s use of an “air burst” munition – a weapon set to explode above the ground. But a BBC investigation said the blast scene was not consistent with this.
• Intercepted communications between Hamas members references the firing of rockets from a nearby cemetery, the fact that shrapnel from the explosion is typical of shrapnel from a Gaza-based rocket launch and not Israeli, and that Hamas had determined the explosion was caused by a locally-fired rocket, presumably by Islamic Jihad. According to Israeli journalist Ron Ben-Yishai, the audio appears to be authentic as the two Hamas operatives are speaking with a heavy Gazan accent. Hamas, however, has called the audio an obvious fabrication, and two independent Arab journalists told Channel 4 News that the ‘language, accent, dialect, syntax and tone’ of the voice-recording is not credible.
• Numerous experts and analysts weighing in on the issue largely agree with Israel's assessment that a misfiring rocket fired from Gaza caused the tragedy. These include Justin Bronk, RUSI aerial warfare analyst; Joel Rayburn, director of the American Center for Levant Studies, Open-source intelligence group GeoConfirmed and Tal Hagin, an investigative analyst specialising in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Summing up their conclusions, former UN war crimes investigator Marc Garlasco stated: “Whatever hit the hospital in Gaza it wasn't an airstrike. Even the smallest (air-missile) leaves a 3m crater. Widespread surface damage and total lack of cratering is inconsistent with an airstrike."
• An investigation by the French military intelligence has concluded that Israel was not behind the hospital blast, ruled the possibility that fragments from Israel's Iron Dome air defence system or intercepted missiles were the cause.
• An intelligence assessment by the US National Security Council also backs Israel’s claims regarding the source of the blast.
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad maintained Israel was to blame, but have failed to produce any evidence to justify its claim. Palestinian authorities say they hold the missile warhead which Israel dropped onto the hospital – yet, most conspicuously, they refuse to show it!

Global impact

The consequences of the media’s jumping to conclusions in regard to who was responsible for the hospital incident has been “really serious” and had “real costs”, according to UK Minister for Security, Tom Tugendhat. Indeed, the effects have been global.

Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq issued statements condemning Israel and accusing its military of bombing the hospital. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, and Tunisia. Protests also rocked the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Already teetering on the brink, this one mis-reported incident could have been the one (and could yet still be) that catapult this conflict into a regional, or even global war.

One UK minister even implied that faulty BBC reporting of the incident could have contributed to Joe Biden abandoning his Middle East peace summit, although this seems unlikely given that Saudi and Jordanian leaders were said to have been initiators of the pull-out.

Conclusion

While the evidence presented appears to point to rocket fire from within Gaza rather than an Israeli air-missile as being responsible for the tragedy at the Gaza hospital, clearly, this cannot be stated with certainty, and a thorough, formal, independent investigation will need to be conducted.

But, regardless of the truth of the matter – many don’t seem to care about that – the damage to Israel’s reputation has already been inflicted. Already teetering on the brink, this one mis-reported incident could have been the one (and could still be) to catapult this conflict into a regional or even global war. The potential consequences could not be more dire.

One cannot but note, also, the fact that as mounting evidence emerged of Israel’s non-involvement in the hospital blast, the international news media have suddenly gone silent on the matter, neglecting to admit – with only a few exceptions – their collective guilt in their initial misreporting, and being extremely reluctant to point out who the real culprit for the incident appears to be.